Glacial Legacies-How Refugial Dynamics Shaped the Evolution of the Alpine Endemic Bush-Cricket Anonconotus italoaustriacus.

ABSTRACT: Mountain ranges like the European Alps harbour large endemic biodiversity shaped by Pleistocene climatic oscillations. The flightless bush-cricket Anonconotus italoaustriacus, endemic to the Southern Limestone Alps (SLA) and the eastern Central Alps (CA), provides an ideal model to study the evolutionary and refugial dynamics of endemic alpine arthropods. Using genomic SNP data, we employed phylogenetic analyses, Bayesian clustering, and demographic modelling to investigate the species' evolutionary history and its refugial dynamics. Our results support a scenario of survival in multiple peripheral refugia during the Last Glacial Period (LGP; 115-11.7 ka), with populations in the southern SLA and eastern CA exhibiting the highest private allelic richness. Postglacial recolonization of inte

SUBMITTER: Kirschner P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12859393 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature