title: How Far into Europe Did Pikas (Lagomorpha: Ochotonidae) Go during the Pleistocene? New Evidence from Central Iberia.
abstract: This paper reports the first find of pika remains in the Iberian Peninsula, at a site in central Spain. A fragmented mandible of Ochotona cf. pusilla was unearthed from Layer 3 (deposited some 63.4±5.5 ka ago as determined by thermoluminescence) of the Buena Pinta Cave. This record establishes new limits for the genus geographic distribution during the Pleistocene, shifting the previous edge of its known range southwest by some 500 km. It also supports the idea that, even though Europe's alpine mountain ranges represented a barrier that prevented the dispersal into the south to this and other taxa of small mammals from central and eastern Europe, they were crossed or circumvented at the coldest time intervals of the end of the Middle Pleistocene and of the Late Pleistocene. During those periods both the reduction of the forest cover and the emersion of large areas of the continental shelf due to the drop of the sea level probably provided these species a way to surpass this barrier. The pika mandible was found accompanying the remains of other small mammals adapted to cold climates, indicating the presence of steppe environments in central Iberia during the Late Pleistocene.
authors.affiliation: Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: César
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Laplana
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Paloma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sevilla
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.|Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Arsuaga
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Geología, Geografía y Medio Ambiente, Universidad de Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.|Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Mari Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Arriaza
authors.affiliation: Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.|Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baquedano
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos, Spain.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pérez-González
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Nieves
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: López-Martínez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007793:Lagomorpha / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D008334:Mandible / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods*; D013030:Spain