Ochotona_spanglei
Ochotona spanglei
Extinct species of mammal
Ochotona spanglei is an extinct species of pika (mammal in the family Ochotonidae), known from Late Miocene - Early Pliocene fossil from Oregon (USA).[1][2][n 1] Fossils were also found in Nebraska referred to as Ochotona cf. spanglei.[2][3][n 1]
Ochotona spanglei is the earliest known pika, which inhabited North America. Pika came at the Miocene-Pliocene boundary from Eurasia. Extinction of O. spanglei was followed by an approximately three-million-year-long gap in the known North American pikas record.[4]