{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T01:55:11Z","timestamp":1777082111245,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Walter de Gruyter GmbH","issue":"1","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Amphib Reptilia"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2009]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We investigated the mitochondrial phylogeography of spur-thighed tortoises\n\t\t\t\t\t\t(Testudo graeca) in the Western Mediterranean. In North Africa, four major\n\t\t\t\t\t\tlineages (A-D) occur that together constitute a well-supported clade\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcorresponding to one of the six major clades within T. graeca; the North\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAfrican clade is sister to a Caucasian clade representing the subspecies T.\n\t\t\t\t\t\tg. armeniaca. Phylogenetic relationships between the North African lineages\n\t\t\t\t\t\tare badly resolved. Lineage A is distributed in Tunisia and adjacent\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAlgeria, lineage B in Algeria and northern Morocco, lineage C in the Libyan\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCyrenaica Peninsula, and lineage D north of the High Atlas Mts. and in the\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSouss Valley (southern Morocco). Lineage B is subdivided into two subgroups,\n\t\t\t\t\t\tB1 (eastern Morocco and Algeria) and B2 (north-western Morocco). Italian\n\t\t\t\t\t\ttortoises harbour haplotypes of lineage A, Spanish tortoises of subgroup B1.\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBased on a relaxed molecular clock calibrated with fossil evidence, the six\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmajor mtDNA clades of T. graeca are estimated to have diverged approximately\n\t\t\t\t\t\t4.2-1.8 Ma ago; the split between the clades representing the eastern\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsubspecies T. g. ibera and T. g. terrestris is younger than the split\n\t\t\t\t\t\tbetween Western Mediterranean tortoises and T. g. armeniaca. The Western\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMediterranean lineages A-D were dated to have diverged at least 1.4-1.1 Ma\n\t\t\t\t\t\tago; B1 and B2 split approximately 0.7 Ma ago. Our results suggest that\n\t\t\t\t\t\tItalian and Spanish tortoises were either introduced or originated from\n\t\t\t\t\t\ttrans-oceanic dispersal in historic or prehistoric times. Spur-thighed\n\t\t\t\t\t\ttortoises invaded North Africa probably across Near Eastern landbridges that\n\t\t\t\t\t\temerged in the Late Tertiary. Their diversification in North Africa seems to\n\t\t\t\t\t\tbe correlated with habitat aridization cycles during the Pleistocene. The\n\t\t\t\t\t\tranges of the Western Mediterranean lineages largely correspond to the\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdistribution of morphologically defined subspecies in North Africa, with\n\t\t\t\t\t\texception of T. g. graeca and T. g. whitei, and of T. g. lamberti and T. g.\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmarokkensis, which are not differentiated. We propose to lump the first two\n\t\t\t\t\t\tsubspecies under the name of T. g. graeca and the latter under the name of\n\t\t\t\t\t\tT. g. marokkensis. The complex differentiation of spur-thighed tortoises in\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNorth Africa implies that the model of a bipartite east-west\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdifferentiation, as proposed for other Maghrebian amphibians and reptiles,\n\t\t\t\t\t\tmay be too simplistic, reflecting incomplete locality sampling rather than\n\t\t\t\t\t\tactual phylogeographic differentiation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1163\/156853809787392702","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,11]],"date-time":"2009-02-11T16:12:19Z","timestamp":1234368739000},"page":"63-80","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":65,"title":["Mitochondrial phylogeography of Testudo graeca in the Western Mediterranean: Old complex divergence in North Africa and recent arrival in Europe"],"prefix":"10.1163","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Uwe","family":"Fritz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Museum of Zoology (Museum f\u00fcr Tierkunde), Natural History State Collections Dresden, A. B. Meyer Building, D-01109 Dresden, Germany"}]},{"given":"D. James","family":"Harris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Investiga\u00e7\u00e3o em Biodiversidade e Recursos Gen\u00e9ticos (CIBIO\/UP), ICETA, Campus Agr\u00e1rio de Vair\u00e3o, P-4485-661 Vila do Conde, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Soumia","family":"Fahd","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"D\u00e9partement de Biologie, Facult\u00e9 des Sciences, Universit\u00e9 Abdelmalek Essa\u00e2di, BP. 2121, T\u00e9touan, Morocco"}]},{"given":"Rachid","family":"Rouag","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre universitaire d'El Tarf, 36100 El Tarf, Algeria"}]},{"given":"Eva","family":"Graci\u00e1 Mart\u00ednez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"\u00c1rea de Ecolog\u00eda, Departamento de Biolog\u00eda Aplicada, Universidad Miguel Hern\u00e1ndez, Edificio Torreblanca, Avd. de la Universidad, E-03202 Elche (Alicante), Spain"}]},{"given":"Andr\u00e9s","family":"Gim\u00e9nez Casalduero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"\u00c1rea de Ecolog\u00eda, Departamento de Biolog\u00eda Aplicada, Universidad Miguel Hern\u00e1ndez, Edificio Torreblanca, Avd. de la Universidad, E-03202 Elche (Alicante), Spain"}]},{"given":"Pavel","family":"\u0160irok\u00fd","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology and Wildlife Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palack\u00e9ho 1-3, CZ-612 42 Brno, Czech Republic"}]},{"given":"Mohsen","family":"Kalboussi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institut Sylvo-Pastoral, Jendouba, 8110 Tabarka, Tunisia"}]},{"given":"Tarek B.","family":"Jdeidi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Zoology Department, Science Faculty, Alfateh University, Tripoli, Libya"}]},{"given":"Anna K.","family":"Hundsd\u00f6rfer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Museum of Zoology (Museum f\u00fcr Tierkunde), Natural History State Collections Dresden, A. B. Meyer Building, D-01109 Dresden, Germany"}]}],"member":"374","container-title":["Amphibia-Reptilia"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/brill.com\/view\/journals\/amre\/30\/1\/article-p63_8.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/brill.com\/downloadpdf\/journals\/amre\/30\/1\/article-p63_8.xml","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/brill.com\/downloadpdf\/journals\/amre\/30\/1\/article-p63_8.xml","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,22]],"date-time":"2025-10-22T03:59:45Z","timestamp":1761105585000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/brill.com\/view\/journals\/amre\/30\/1\/article-p63_8.xml"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2009]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1"},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1163\/156853809787392702","relation":{},"ISSN":["0173-5373","1568-5381"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0173-5373","type":"print"},{"value":"1568-5381","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2009]]}}}