Phylogeography of introgression: Spatial and temporal analyses identify two introgression events between brown and American black bears.

ABSTRACT: Brown bears (Ursus arctos) colonized North America from Eurasia in two distinct and temporally separated waves. Once in North America they encountered endemic American black bears (U. americanus) during range expansions from eastern Beringia southwards into the interior of the continent. The establishment of sympatry between these species provided the opportunity for hybridization and introgression, which was previously identified at the species level using D-statistics. Both species have broad spatial ranges that should limit the extent of introgression, such that it is found primarily between sympatric populations. Here, we used range-wide sampling and whole genome sequencing of both bear species to test for spatial variability in introgression. We identified two pulses of introgression

SUBMITTER: Puckett EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12137868 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature