Society

Fossilized rabbit skull on display in Beijing

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-06 10:19

BEIJING -- A fossil, the complete skull of an ancient rabbit believed to be about 54 million years old, was put on display in Beijing on Saturday, the third day of the Chinese Lunar Rabbit New Year.

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Visitors could view the miniature skull through a magnifying glass. The rabbit is part of a special Chinese Lunar Rabbit Year Exhibition at the Paleozoological Museum of China in Beijing.

In 2007, Chinese archaeologists discovered the complete fossilized rabbit skull in the Eren Basin in northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They named it the "Dawsonlagus antiquus" rabbit.

Archaeologists speculated that the "Dawsonlagus antiques" rabbit is the oldest example of a rabbit every discovered, showing the animal having two pairs of upper front teeth and one pair of lower front teeth.

In the Chinese Lunar Rabbit Year Exhibition, visitors could also see the origin and evolution of the rabbit species.