Phylogeography of the stone marten (Martes foina: Mustelidae: Mammalia) in Eurasia, based on a mitochondrial DNA analysis.

The stone marten (Martes foina) is a small carnivore distributed from Europe to Central Asia. To investigate its phylogeography, we sequenced part of the mitochondrial control-region (485 bp) for 30 individuals from 26 localities broadly covering the species range across continental Eurasia. We identified 16 haplotypes, which comprised two major groups along with the previously reported haplotypes: the Major Eurasian group that included haplotypes widely distributed from Europe to Central Asia, and the Eastern Turkey group containing haplotypes restricted to eastern Turkey. Our phylogeographic and demographic analyses indicated a recent population expansion for the Major Eurasian group, but no clear evidence for the Eastern Turkey group. Our results also suggested that the refugial M. foina population on the Balkan Peninsula expanded to Western Turkey, most of Europe, and Central Asia since the Last Glacial Maximum due to the lack of significant geographical barriers, although the small number of samples limits our understanding of the overall phylogeography. On the other hand, this assumption does not exclude the possibility that some of the central Asian populations in the Major Eurasian group could have originated from somewhere in central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]