Phylogeny and evolutionary origins of the Leporidae: a review of cytogenetics, molecular analyses and a supermatrix analysis

1. We review current knowledge of the evolutionary relationships among species of Leporidae drawing on molecular, cytogenetic and morphological data. We highlight problems associated with retrieving phylogenetic information under conditions of a rapid radiation and the lack of phylogenetically informative cytogenetic and mitochondrial DNA characters. Most morphological features underpinning generic distinctions are subtle and prone to reversal and convergence and as a consequence, they generally provide little basis for assessing phylogenetic affinity. 2. We report the results of a supermatrix analysis that combines published nucleotide sequence data, unique insertion/deletion events, morphological characters and presumed geographical centres of origin of each genus. This represents the most comprehensive intergeneric comparison of the Leporidae thus far undertaken. 3. The monophyly of the 11 leporid genera is unambiguously supported. There is support for an Afroasian assemblage that comprises Poelagus, Pronolagus and Nesolagus, a primitive Lepus, with the problematic Bunolagus, Oryctolagus, Caprolagus and Pentalagus as derived species in a clade that also includes the closely related Brachylagus and Sylvilagus as sister taxa. 4. There is no support for the Palaeolaginae, although Romerolagus is an ancient lineage within the extant Leporidae. 5. We hold that of the polytypic genera Lepus remains the most problematic, and provide a working hypothesis that will hopefully encourage future research on the various hare species.