Browsing by Author "Fuentes Hurtado, Marcelo"

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    Molecular divergence between insular and continental Pudu deer (Pudu puda) populations in the Chilean Patagonia
    (TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2011) Fuentes Hurtado, Marcelo; Marin, Juan C.; Gonzalez Acuna, Daniel; Verdugo, Claudio; Vidal, Fernando; Vianna, Juliana A.
    Island-continent isolation scenarios have played major roles in the understanding and development of evolutionary theories. During the last glacial maximum (LGM) in southern Chile, ice sheet advances and retreats formed the Patagonian archipelago along the southern Pacific Ocean. Chiloe Island is the largest island from the archipelago isolated from the continent by a narrow and shallow stretch of ocean. Pudu puda is a species endemic to Chile and part of Argentina, distributed along the Valdivian Temperate rainforest. We used mtDNA control region (654 bp) and cytochrome b (734 bp) sequences to understand the consequences in the evolutionary history and population structure of Pudu puda island-continent isolation. Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analysis revealed two divergent clades corresponding to the continent and Chiloe Island. The Median Joining Network also supports these findings with an isolation of 10 mutational steps between Chiloe and the continent. We also found a significant high genetic structure (phi st = 0.75) and a sequence divergence percentage of 2.3% between the two clades. On the other hand, on the continent we found high haplotype genetic diversity (H = 0.9790 +/- 0.0103) but no clear geographical population structure or phylogenetic clades. Our results suggest that the southern Pudu deer populations were isolated since the interglacial period (less than 0.5 million years ago) from the continent leading to two reciprocally monophyletic clades. We propose two subspecies to be considered in the development of future conservation programs for the species.
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    Paleodistribution modeling suggests glacial refugia in Scandinavia and out-of-Tibet range expansion of the Arctic fox
    (WILEY, 2016) Fuentes Hurtado, Marcelo; Hof, Anouschka R.; Jansson, Roland
    Quaternary glacial cycles have shaped the geographic distributions and evolution of numerous species in the Arctic. Ancient DNA suggests that the Arctic fox went extinct in Europe at the end of the Pleistocene and that Scandinavia was subsequently recolonized from Siberia, indicating inability to track its habitat through space as climate changed. Using ecological niche modeling, we found that climatically suitable conditions for Arctic fox were found in Scandinavia both during the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the mid-Holocene. Our results are supported by fossil occurrences from the last glacial. Furthermore, the model projection for the LGM, validated with fossil records, suggested an approximate distance of 2000 km between suitable Arctic conditions and the Tibetan Plateau well within the dispersal distance of the species, supporting the recently proposed hypothesis of range expansion from an origin on the Tibetan Plateau to the rest of Eurasia. The fact that the Arctic fox disappeared from Scandinavia despite suitable conditions suggests that extant populations may be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought.