Genetic signatures of a demographic collapse in a large-bodied forest dwelling primate (Mandrillus leucophaeus).

ABSTRACT: It is difficult to predict how current climate change will affect wildlife species adapted to a tropical rainforest environment. Understanding how population dynamics fluctuated in such species throughout periods of past climatic change can provide insight into this issue. The drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) is a large-bodied rainforest adapted mammal found in West Central Africa. In the middle of this endangered monkey's geographic range is Lake Barombi Mbo, which has a well-documented palynological record of environmental change that dates to the Late Pleistocene. We used a Bayesian coalescent-based framework to analyze 2,076 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA across wild drill populations to infer past changes in female effective population size since the Late Pleistocene. Our results sugge

SUBMITTER: Ting N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3399144 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature