Locomotor behavior and hearing sensitivity in an early lagomorph reconstructed from the bony labyrinth.

The structure of the bony labyrinth is highly informative with respect to locomotor agility (semicircular canals [SCC]) and hearing sensitivity (cochlear and oval windows). Here, we reconstructed the agility and hearing sensitivity of the stem lagomorph from the early Oligocene of the Brule Formation of Nebraska (USA). has proportionally smaller SCCs with respect to its body mass compared with most extant leporids but within the modern range of variability, suggesting that it was less agile than most of its modern relatives.