Search results for "Pleistocene refugia"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
New molecular data attest to the absence of cospeciation patterns between Placobdella costata (Fr. Müller, 1846) (Hirudinea) and freshwater turtles (…
2021
The only Palearctic representative of the leech genus Placobdella Blanchard, 1893 is P. costata, an ectoparasite of freshwater turtles. To date, no conclusive evidence about the possible presence of coevolutionary patterns between this leech and its turtle hosts is available due to the paucity of DNA sequence data available for P. costata; moreover, comparative host data is also mostly lacking, making any inferences more difficult. The discovery of new populations of the species in northern Italy and Sicily allowed us to generate novel mitochondrial DNA sequences and to compare the topology of the resulting phylogenetic trees with the phylogeny of the turtle hosts occurring in the study are…
The European Pine Marten Martes martes (Linnaeus, 1758) Is Autochthonous in Sicily and Constitutes a Well-Characterised Major Phylogroup within the S…
2022
No molecular data are currently available for the Sicilian populations of the European pine marten Martes martes, thus preventing any sound inference about its native or non-native status on the island, as well as the local phylogeography of the species. In order to investigate these issues, we sequenced two mtDNA markers in road-killed specimens collected in Sicily. Both markers consistently demonstrated the existence of a well-characterised Sicilian clade of the species, which is endemic to the island and constitutes the sister group of a clade including the Mediterranean and Central–North European major phylogroups of the European pine marten. Such evidence supports the autochthony of Ma…
Neolithic woodland in the north Mediterranean basin: A review on Olea europaea L.
2013
The aim of this paper is to specify the natural distribution of Olea europaea L. during the Early Holocene in the Northern Mediterranean by means of the identification of wood charcoal remains of this species at prehistoric sites. For this purpose, we have reviewed the relevant literature and extracted the data in which Olea charcoal has been identified. We have taken into consideration the biogeographical and chrono-cultural contexts in which the species is present, its frequency of occurrence at different locations and the associated plant taxa with the aim of tracking the Holocene history of the oleaster. Based on this information we suggest that the species started expanding during the …
Data from: Forest snail faunas from Transylvania (Romania), and their relationship to the faunas of Central and Northern Europe
2011
Forty-three forest sites in seven sampling areas in mountainous parts of Transylvania were sampled to obtain inventories of their snail faunas, and to make comparisons between these and the faunas of similar sites further north along the Carpathian chain. Sampling areas ran from close to the Ukrainian border in the north to Retezat in the south-west. Altogether, 83 species were found, and between 19 and 40 species at individual sites. Sites within the same sampling area had more species in common than in among-area comparisons, but differences between areas did not relate to distance between them. Such differences appeared to relate more to ecological factors than to geography. Faunas of al…