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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.

We thank the authors for their comment and welcome the opportunity to clarify our interpretations in view of the concerns raised. First, Pujalte and Schmitz dismiss our dataset from Tendrui by claiming that there is no Claret Conglomerate (CC) at this location. The Tendrui section of Domingo et al. (2009) and Manners et al. (2013) can be located using the coordinates recorded in Manners et al. (2013; N 042° 10′07.2″, E 000° 51′25.3″). When sampling at this location the CC was indeed exposed, as presented in the logs of Domingo et al. (2009) and Manners et al. (2013). It may be possible that the Tendrui section without the CC, referred to by Pujalte and Schmitz (2014), is exposed at a different location in the vicinity of Tendrui. Unfortunately their locality cannot be identified as its precise location was not provided by Schmitz and Pujalte (2007) or Pujalte et al. (2014). Second, Pujalte and Schmitz (2014) claim that vegetation covers the critical interval below the CC at the Claret road section (Fig. 1 of their comment), making the sampling through this “covered” interval, as presented in Manners et al. (2013), impossible. There is vegetation in this area, but when sampled in March 2010, this was not so dense as to preclude trenching back into in-situ material (Fig. 1). This is how our samples were taken, with the express aim of providing a more complete record of the carbon isotope excursion (CIE) onset below the CC.