engleski

Microtus bavaricus discovered in Croatia: Southern refugium or geographical variation?

Microtus bavaricus was considered as an endemic species of the Alps: in Bavaria in Germany and northern Tyrol in Austria was considered to be the last and therefore critically endangered population, supposed to have survived the last glacial period in a refugium situated in the northern Alps. The Microtus specimen was captured in the area of Papuk Mountain (Croatia) and the mtDNA analyses belongs it to the M.bavaricus lineage and proves the occurrence of the M. bavaricus haplotype far away southwards from the currently assumed distribution range of this species. New hypothesis are that M.bavaricus had a much larger Pleistocene distribution than previously assumed or that it survived the last glaciation in a Panonnian or Central Balkan refugium and in the course of a subsequent postglacial northwestward expansion, probably following the Danube river tributaries, expanded as far as to the northern parts of the Alps.

Microtus bavaricus; Molecular divergence; Control region; Cytochrome b; Glacial refugia

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