A NEW species of rabbit has been found in Southeast Asia.
Diana Bell of the University of East Anglia and her colleagues analysed DNA
from three striped rabbit skins found at a rural market in Laos. The results
show that the skins come from a new species, related to the rare Sumatran
striped rabbit (Nature, vol 400, p 726). “They diverged about 8 million
years ago,” says Bell. The Sumatran rabbit was thought to be extinct until
recently caught on film by an automatic camera-trap.
