Rabbit Cladistics

I know that many people have brought to our attention various surprises of cladistics: tetrapods are fish, birds are reptiles, tortoises are turtles, and whales are artiodactyls.

However, it seems no one besides myself has ever noticed that within the family of Leporidae, while true hares do form a genus (Lepus) within it, there is no monophyletic group for “rabbits” (all other leporids), because it is an otherwise monophyletic group that excludes the Lepus genus.
What’s more, if you consider Pronolagus to be hares too, hares become a non-monophyletic garbage taxon as well.
Perhaps those who thought hares are a type of rabbit were right after all, at least if rabbits were to be defined as a monophyletic group? After all, for the longest time, I thought that tortoises were a type of turtle, which turned out to be true in a phylogenetic sense.

there is no monophyletic term for rabbit because rabbits never were and still are not a taxonomic unit. 'Rabbit'  (and hare too, for that matter) is a common name used variably for different lagomorph taxa across different regions.

You are trying to infer phylogenetic relationships using common names. A futile effort.

careful with the use of the term 'garbage taxon' - it does not equate to a non-monophyletic group.

I guess you could say the same about any of the other groups, right? I could have explained that you could instead just use the terms “reptile” or “fish” in the traditional, non-taxonomic ways.

Birdsage wrote:

I guess you could say the same about any of the other groups, right? I could have explained that you could instead just use the terms “reptile” or “fish” in the traditional, non-taxonomic ways.

An animal is only a modified version of it's ancestor. Humans are bipedal, hairy, warm-blooded, milk-producing reptiles :-D

The first part is true, but mammals did not evolve from reptiles. Synapsids are not reptiles because they are not part of the least inclusive clade containing all living animals that are generally considered reptiles. Birds are included, but synapsids are not.

bmathison1972 wrote:

there is no monophyletic term for rabbit because rabbits never were and still are not a taxonomic unit. 'Rabbit'  (and hare too, for that matter) is a common name used variably for different lagomorph taxa across different regions.

You are trying to infer phylogenetic relationships using common names. A futile effort.

careful with the use of the term 'garbage taxon' - it does not equate to a non-monophyletic group.

Almost the same reply that I was about to write as soon as I saw the question. Better explained is not possible. Chapeau, Blaine!

And also, synapsids ARE descendant of reptiles.