Relict Populations and Endemic Clades in Palearctic Reptiles: Evolutionary History and Implications for Conservation

The phylogeographic history of eight species complexes of West Palearctic reptiles was reconstructed using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Cryptic endemic taxa were detected in the Southern European peninsulas (Iberia, Southern Italy/Sicily, and Greece) as well as in North Africa, Anatolia, Iran, and the Caucasus. These endemics are mainly of Tertiary or early Pleistocene age. Only part of them can be categorized as relicts of a former, more widely distributed taxon, having survived in ice age refugia; others have probably always remained in a restricted area, close to their origin.