Origin and haplotype diversity of the northernmost population of Podarcistauricus (Squamata, Lacertidae): Do lizards respond to climate change and go north?

The northernmost population of the Balkan wall lizards, Podarcistauricus (Pallas, 1814) was recently discovered in the Czech Republic. We studied genetic variability in a mitochondrial marker cytochrome b to shed light on the origin of this remote population. We detected three unique haplotypes, close to those occurring in the populations of Podarcistauricus from central/north Balkans and Hungary. Our data exclude the hypothesis of a single founder (a randomly or intentionally introduced pregnant female or her progeny) of the Czech population and indicate a native, autochthonous origin of the population or recent introduction/range expansion.
(Ivan Rehák, David Fischer, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Michail Rovatsos.)