Late‐glacial recolonization and phylogeography of European red deer (Cervus elaphus L.)

Abstract

The Pleistocene was an epoch of extreme climatic and environmental changes. How individual species responded to the repeated cycles of warm and cold stages is a major topic of debate. For the European fauna and flora, an expansion-contraction model has been suggested, whereby temperate species were restricted to southern refugia during glacial times and expanded northwards during interglacials, including the present interglacial (Holocene). Here, we test this model on the red deer (Cervus elaphus) a large and highly mobile herbivore, using both modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA from the entire European range of the species over the last c. 40,000 years. Our results indicate that this species was sensitive to the effects of climate change. Prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) haplogroups restricted today to South-East Europe and Western Asia reached as far west as the UK. During the LGM, red deer was mainly restricted to southern refugia, in Iberia, the Balkans and possibly in Italy and South-Western Asia. At the end of the LGM, red deer expanded from the Iberian refugium, to Central and Northern Europe, including the UK, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany, Poland and Belarus. Ancient DNA data cannot rule out refugial survival of red deer in North-West Europe through the LGM. Had such deer survived, though, they were replaced by deer migrating from Iberia at the end of the glacial. The Balkans served as a separate LGM refugium and were probably connected to Western Asia with genetic exchange between the two areas.

Phylogeography of the Tyrrhenian red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) resolved using ancient DNA of radiocarbon-dated subfossils

“…It has specifically been stated that only ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses of indigenous Italian mainland red deer could settle the question of the origin of the Tyrrhenian red deer 8 . Ancient DNA studies have revealed that the present distribution of phylogeographic lineages may be more limited than before the anthropogenic impacts on large mammal populations, including those of red deer 27 (for an example in brown bears see refs 28,29 ). They have also been performed to elucidate the recolonization of Scandinavia 30 and specifically to address the colonization of islands: Carden et al .…”

Positioning the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Hunted by the Tyrolean Iceman into a Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny

“…More recently, researchers sampled modern and ancient red deer specimens from the entire European range of the species over the last c. 40,000 years [14]. Results described two main European red deer groups: West/central Europe vs South-East Europe and Western Asia arose by red deer expansions from Iberia and Balkans refugia (and possibly from Italy as well) in the last post-glacial warming.…”

Radiocarbon Dating the Late Upper Paleolithic of Cantabrian Spain: El Mirón Cave Date List IV

“…The timing and nature of the Solutrean-Magdalenian transition (pre-or post-17,000 uncal BP; abrupt or gradual) have been the subjects of debate in SW Europe for many decades, especially with the recent claims for a widespread Badegoulian technocomplex or tradition interposed between the Solutrean and the classic Magdalenian in Spain as well as in France, where it had originally been defined. The El Mirón burial is the first Magdalenian interment to be discovered on the Iberian Peninsula, although (in line with Magdalenian traditions in France and Germany, as summarized by Pettitt [2011]) there is other evidence in Spain of the postmortem manipulation of human remains, including the cranial "cups" found by Obermaier (1924) (Meiri et al 2013). Information on the Oxford laboratory's ultrafiltration pretreatment, target preparation, and AMS measurement methods is published in Bronk Ramsey et al (2002) and Higham et al (2006).…”