MN10 Prolagus (Ochotonidae, Lagomorpha) from Austria: a new tile for the central European palaeobiogeography of the genus

In the framework of the renewed interest for the study of lagomorph taxonomy and palaeobiogeography in Central Europe, we studied the remains attributed to the genus Prolagus in the MN10 of Austria and recognized two species: P. aff. crusafonti (Richardhof-Wald, early MN10) and Prolagus sp. (Schernham, late MN10). Our results suggest that the evolution of the genus Prolagus followed different pathways in eastern Central Europe at least since early Late Miocene and evidences that the palaeobiogeography of Prolagus in European Late Miocene is much more complicated than previously expected.