Ancient DNA evidence of Iberian lynx palaeoendemism

作者：Rodriguez Varela Ricardo^*; Tagliacozzo Antonio; Urena Irene; Garcia Nuria; Cregut Bonnoure Evelyne; Mannino Marcello A; Luis Arsuaga Juan; Valdiosera Cristina

来源：Quaternary Science Reviews, 2015, 112: 172-180.

DOI：10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.01.009

• Iberian lynx
• Ancient DNA
• Eurasian lynx
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Palaeoendemism

The Iberian lynx, endemic to the Iberian Peninsula, is the most threatened carnivore in Europe and the most endangered felid in the world. Widely distributed throughout Iberia during the PIeistocene and Holocene it is now confined to two small populations in southern Spain. Lynx species differentiation, based solely on morphological analysis from skeletal traits, is a difficult task and can potentially lead to misidentification. In order to verify whether Iberian lynx had a wider geographical distribution in the past, we successfully sequenced 152 base pairs (bp) of the cytochrome b gene and 183 bp of the mitochondrial control region in 20 Late PIeistocene and Holocene fossil remains of Lynx sp. from southern Europe. Our results confirm the presence of Iberian lynx outside the Iberian Peninsula demonstrating that this is a palaeoendemic species that had a wider distribution range in southern Europe during the Holocene and the Late PIeistocene. In addition, we documented the presence of both Palaearctic extant lynx species in the Arene Candide (north Italy) site during the Last Glacial Maximum.

• 出版日期2015-3-15