Where are you from, stranger? The enigmatic biogeography of North African pond turtles (Emys orbicularis) .

摘要

Abstract The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) is audNearctic element in the African fauna and thought to haveudinvaded North Africa from the Iberian Peninsula. All NorthudAfrican populations are currently identified with the subspeciesudE. o. occidentalis. However, a nearly range-wide sampling inudNorth Africa used for analyses of mitochondrial and microsatelliteudDNA provides evidence that only Moroccan populationsudbelong to this taxon, while eastern Algerian and Tunisian pondudturtles represent an undescribed distinct subspecies. These twoudtaxa are most closely related to E. o. galloitalica with a nativeuddistribution along the Mediterranean coast of northern Spainudthrough southern France to western and southern Italy. Thisudgroup is sister to a clade comprising several mitochondrial lineagesudand subspecies of E. orbicularis from Central and EasternudEurope plus Asia, and the successive sisters are E. o. hellenicaudand E. trinacris. Our results suggest that E. orbicularis has beenudpresent in North Africa longer than on the Iberian Peninsula andudthat after an initial invasion of North Africa by pond turtles fromudan unknown European source region, there was a phase ofuddiversification in North Africa, followed by a later re-invasionudof Europe by one of the African lineages. The differentiation ofudpond turtles in North Africa parallels a general phylogeographicudparadigm in amphibians and reptiles, with deeply divergentudlineages in the western and eastern Maghreb. Acknowledgingudtheir genetic similarity, we propose to synonymize the previouslyudrecognized Iberian subspecies E. o. fritzjuergenobsti with E. o.udoccidentalis sensu stricto. The seriously imperiled Moroccanudpopulations of E. o. occidentalis represent two ManagementudUnits different in mitochondrial haplotypes and microsatelliteudmarkers. The conservation status of eastern Algerian pond turtlesudis unclear, while Tunisian populations are endangered.udConsidering that Algerian and Tunisian pond turtles representudan endemic taxon, their situation throughout the historical rangeudshould be surveyed to establish a basis for conservationudmeasures.