Oryctolagus cuniculus
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Oryctolagus cuniculus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation21 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility715 804 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI171 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics77 specimens↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas mountains in Northwest Africa. It has been widely introduced elsewhere, often with devastating effects on local biodiversity. However, its decline in its native range (caused by the diseases myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus, as well as overhunting and habitat loss) has caused the decline of its highly dependent predators, the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) and the Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti). It is known as an invasive species because it has been introduced to countries on all continents with the exception of Antarctica, and has caused many problems within the environment and ecosystems; in particular, European rabbits in Australia have had a devastating impact, due in part to the lack of natural predators there. The European rabbit is well known for digging networks of burrows, called warrens, where it spends most of its time when not feeding. Unlike the related hares (Lepus spp.), rabbits are altricial, the young being born blind and furless, in a fur-lined nest in the warren, and they are totally dependent upon their mother. Much of the modern research into wild rabbit behaviour was carried out in the 1960s by two research centres. One was the naturalist Ronald Lockley, who maintained a number of large enclosures for wild rabbit colonies, with observation facilities, in Orielton, Pembrokeshire. Apart from publishing a number of scientific papers, he popularised his findings in a book The Private Life of the Rabbit, which is credited by Richard Adams as having played a key role in his gaining "a knowledge of rabbits and their ways" that informed his novel Watership Down. The other group was the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, where numerous studies of the social behavior of wild rabbits were performed. Since the onset of myxomatosis, and the decline of the significance of the rabbit as an agricultural pest, few large-scale studies have been performed and many aspects of rabbit behaviour are still poorly understood.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology4
Life cycle & reproduction9
Diet & foraging3
Habitat & environment1
Physiology & chemistry4
Other traits5
Compounds documented for Oryctolagus cuniculus across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile2 classes
Documented compounds20 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1S,2E,4R,8S,11S,12R)-4,12-dihydroxy-4,8,12-trimethyl-1-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[9.3.1]pentadec-2-en-6-one | present | NPASS | |
| (1S,2E,4S,8S,11R,12S)-4,11-dihydroxy-4,8,12-trimethyl-1-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[10.2.1]pentadec-2-en-6-one | present | NPASS | |
| (1S,2E,4S,8S,11S,12R)-4,12-dihydroxy-4,8,12-trimethyl-1-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[9.3.1]pentadec-2-en-6-one | present | NPASS | |
| [(1S,2R,5S,9R,10E,12S)-9-hydroxy-1,5,9-trimethyl-7-oxo-12-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[10.2.1]pentadec-10-en-2-yl] acetate | present | NPASS | |
| [(1S,2R,5S,9S,10E,12S)-9-hydroxy-1,5,9-trimethyl-7-oxo-12-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[10.2.1]pentadec-10-en-2-yl] formate | present | NPASS | |
| [(1S,4Z,8E,10E,14S)-8,14-dimethyl-11-propan-2-yl-15-oxabicyclo[12.1.0]pentadeca-4,8,10-trien-4-yl]methanol | present | NPASS | |
| crassarine F | present | NPASS | |
| crassarine H | present | NPASS | |
| GMWIWVUTMCBDSP-LLKLRSEKSA-N | present | NPASS | |
| GXLAFQZWMROZKU-POYCELQWSA-N | present | NPASS |
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Oryctolagus cuniculus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Oryctolagus cuniculus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 445×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Tree of Sex Database · GoaT · Animal Genome Size Database +1
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Oryctolagus cuniculus. Above itBeside it, the bars count how many dated finds fall in each slice of time; the tallest bar is labelled, and heights use a square-root scale so that thin slices stay visible next to rich ones. Read this as how well each stretch of time is preserved and studied — thick bars mean plenty of the right kind of rock and plenty of collectors, which is related to, but not the same as, how common it actually was. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type715 851 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions51 of 101 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Sydney, AU | 1 786 |
| Bonn, DE | 312 |
| Western Australian Museumlocation not on record | 300 |
| Helsinki, FI | 220 |
| Brussels, BE | 179 |
| DOI/NPS, Salem Maritime National Historic Sitelocation not on record | 154 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 120 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 90 |
| Seattle, US | 64 |
| Stockholm, SE | 59 |
| Sevilla, ES | 58 |
| Buenos Aires, AR | 55 |
| Barcelona, ES | 52 |
| Natick, US | 52 |
| Paro, BT | 46 |
| Australian National Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 45 |
| Auckland, NZ | 40 |
| Cambridge, US | 38 |
| Tilburg, NL | 32 |
| QVMAGlocation not on record | 29 |
| Instytut Ochrony Przyrody Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 29 |
| Museums Victorialocation not on record | 28 |
| Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territorylocation not on record | 26 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 24 |
| Berkeley, US | 20 |
| Chicago, US | 19 |
| Honolulu, US | 18 |
| Geneva, CH | 18 |
| Edmonton, CA | 18 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 14 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 14 |
| Liverpool, GB | 13 |
| Los Angeles, US | 13 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 13 |
| EL PASO, US | 12 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 11 |
| SECEMlocation not on record | 9 |
| CEFElocation not on record | 8 |
| East Lansing, US | 8 |
| CASlocation not on record | 8 |
| San Diego, US | 8 |
| Oulu, FI | 8 |
| Toronto, CA | 7 |
| Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record | 7 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 7 |
| New Haven, US | 7 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 7 |
| Bourges, FR | 5 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 5 |
| MRI-PASlocation not on record | 5 |
| Tacoma, US | 5 |
| South Kensington, GB | 4 |
| Washington, US | 4 |
| Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallerylocation not on record | 4 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 4 |
| NSW Dept of Planning, Industry and Environmentlocation not on record | 4 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 4 |
| Bergen, NO | 3 |
| Museo di Zoologia della Sapienza Università di Romalocation not on record | 3 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 3 |
| Universidad de Navarra, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 3 |
| Albany, US | 3 |
| Provo, US | 3 |
| California State University, Long Beachlocation not on record | 3 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 3 |
| Mexico City, MX | 3 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 3 |
| Philip L. Wright Zoological Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| Universidad del Valle de Guatemalalocation not on record | 2 |
| Fribourg, CH | 2 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 2 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 2 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 2 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 2 |
| Saint John, CA | 2 |
| Kuopio, FI | 2 |
| Salzburg, AT | 2 |
| Fort Hays State University, Sternberg Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| Società romana di Scienze naturalilocation not on record | 2 |
| Banyoles, ES | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 1 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrateslocation not on record | 1 |
| National Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 1 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 1 |
| Rovaniemi, FI | 1 |
| Ithaca, US | 1 |
| EEZAlocation not on record | 1 |
| NMUlocation not on record | 1 |
| Denver, US | 1 |
| 1 | |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Centre for Biodiversity Genomicslocation not on record | 1 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 1 |
| Forssa, FI | 1 |
| John May Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Iowa City, US | 1 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 1 |
| Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record | 1 |
| Ohio State University - Mammal Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Oryctolagus cuniculus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.