Rabbits and Guinea Pigs?

[maherwoman]

Hey guys...curiousity question more than anything:

Are rabbits at all related to guinea pigs? I see them put together so often on websites (not in cages, mind you), and there are inferences that they might be related.

Thanks, guys!

 

[Bunman]

Different species. Unlike the rabbit, the GP is a rodent.

 

[rubysmom]

They are different species. While our domestic rabbits come from the European rabbit and are lagomorphs (order Lagomorpha), the guinea pig is native to South America and is currently classified as a rodent (order Rodentia). They are related to other animals like the agouti and capibara. Actually, there is quite a bit of debate as to whether guinea pigs aka cavies are true rodents. There have been recent studies of mitochondrial DNA in guinea pigs that suggest their suborder separated from other rodent suborders earlier than thought. There are also other characteristics that lead scientists to think that they are not rodents (e.g. lack of vitamin C production, relatively longer gestation, etc.).

 

[Bunman]

Interestingly, rabs were classified as rodents until 1912.

 

[Linz_1987]

I have a guinea pig book and it says that theyare related to hedgehogs and a porkipines :?

And yes rabbits and guinea pigs are completely different. They even have a different diet plan.

 

[HoneyPot]

I thought this was a very intresting article... not sure how true it is, I haven't found too much else that says the same, but it basically indicates that the closest evolutionary ancestor of the rabbit were actually primates...

http://www.calacademy.org/calwild/1996summer/stories/counterpoints.html


Edit: So I did some more research and it seems that it's still debated, but there are studies that show this. There are also studies that show in terms of evolution - both Lagomorphs and Rodents have a common ancestor although it was as far back as the Cretaceous period... 64 - 100 million years ago... so they've been separate for quite a while now.

 

[pinksalamander]

Its funny to think so many different animals sprung from probably some kind of little amoeba thing!

Good article!

 

[stopwarownarabbit]

They are not related at all. I've got 3 G.Piggies but I would never let them interact with Bun Buns. One kick by Bun Buns and my piggies go flying like soccer balls.

 

[MyBoyHarper]

stopwarownarabbit wrote:

One kick by Bun Buns and my piggies go flying like soccer balls.

:yeahthat