Late Quaternary small mammal turnover in the Cantabrian Region: The extinction of Pliomys lenki (Rodentia, Mammalia)

Abstract

In addition to the Neanderthals, other mammal species vanished locally or totally in southern Europe during relatively a short period, between about 40 and 10 kyr. The late Upper Pleistocene was in general a time of extinction and extirpation in southern Europe, ranging from musk-oxen and reindeer to Nordic voles (extirpations) to Pliomys and Neanderthals (extinctions). The southern regions of Europe have been glacial refugia for several mammalian species (including humans), and when climatic conditions ameliorated, some spread back to the North and East European Plains (reindeer, saiga, the marsh voles and narrow-skull voles, among others), whence they originally had come. Others remained at their refugia in southern France and on the Iberian, Italian and Balkan Peninsulas, and, after periods of survival, eventually became extinct ( Homo neanderthalensis, Pliomys lenki). The demise of the Neanderthals is, of course, well known, but that of the extinct vole, P. lenki, is not well known at all. Their long survival in southwestern European regions must be related to the existence of suitable climatic, vegetational and geographic conditions. Did these regions become traps when new competitors arrived?