Aim Identifying and protecting refugia is a priority for conservation under projected
anthropogenic climate change, because of their demonstrated ability to facilitate the survival …

Some decades ago, biogeographers distinguished three major faunal types of high
importance for Europe:(i) Mediterranean elements with exclusive glacial survival in the …

The establishment of agricultural economies based upon domestic animals began
independently in many parts of the world and led to both increases in human population size …

Population-genomic studies can shed new light on the effect of past demographic processes
on contemporary population structure. We reassessed phylogeographical patterns of a …

Background After three decades of research aimed at recovering DNA from preserved
remains, the field of ancient DNA is moving rapidly toward the sequencing and analysis of …

Apart from the current human-induced climate change, the Holocene is notable for its stable
climate. In contrast, the preceding age, the Pleistocene, was a time of intensive climatic …

Abstract The Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is an ancient icon of both cultural and
scientific interest. The species is emblematic of the great civilizations of the Nile River valley …

Pulsatilla patens ss is a one of the most endangered plant species in Europe. The present
range of this species in Europe is highly fragmented and the size of the populations has …

The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) was one of several spectacular megafaunal species that
became extinct in northern Eurasia during the late Quaternary. Vast numbers of their …

Despite the greater information content of genomic DNA, ancient DNA studies have largely
been limited to the amplification of mitochondrial sequences. Here we describe …