Fejfar’s legacy: A Spanish perspective on Arvicolinae (Rodentia, Mammalia) biostratigraphy

In the present work, we adopt the comparative logic and methodologies used by Fejfar and colleagues, embedding Spanish faunal assemblages into continental frameworks through the evolutionary history of arvicoline rodents. Over the past three decades in Spain, extensive new collections have been made and existing materials have been re-evaluated. The present work honors the intellectual legacy of Oldřich Fejfar, whose fundamental contributions have shaped Spanish Quaternary small mammal biochronology. Fejfar’s work, focused on refining arvicoline systematics, developing interregional correlation schemes, and demonstrating the biochronological power of small mammals, provides the essential framework upon which our research is built. This study applies his intellectual legacy to Iberian faunas, highlighting their continued significance for Quaternary stratigraphy and paleoecology. In the present work, the geological time selected is the Piacenzian, Gelasian, Calabrian (around 3.1–0.7 Ma), which shows a likely correlation between Central Europe and Spain, using Arvicolinae mammals during the latest Pliocene and Early Pleistocene interval.