Late Pleistocene and Holocene pikas (Mammalia, Lagomorpha) from Europe and the validity of Ochotona spelaea: New insights based on mtDNA analysis
Journal: Palaeontologia Electronica
Year: 2023

Pikas were among small mammals that inhabited mammoth steppes during the last glacial. The evolutionary history of ochotonids in Europe is relatively well studied, although the taxonomic status of many described forms remains ambiguous, and the majority of extant species of the genus Ochotona are poorly represented in the fossil record. The present study aims to analyse the taxonomic relationships of a sample of Late Pleistocene–Holocene pikas based on mtDNA data and to clarify the status of the