The Herpetological Journal

pp. 127-133

Authors: Serap Şenol Tuncay, Steffen Roth, Fevzi Bardakci & Robert Jehle

Abstract: Little is known about the phylogeographic history of amphibian populations along the western Fennoscandinavian coast. In the present study, we focus on the common toad (Bufo bufo) and document the spatial distribution of mitochondrial DNA (cytb) haplotypes at 20 localities along its coastal Norwegian range. Two common haplotypes (out of eight haplotypes in total) were represented by 142 out of the 154 (92%) investigated individuals. However, they were shared at only three localities and clustered at two separate geographic regions each. The most common haplotype (55% of individuals) has previously been found to be abundant across central and eastern Europe, whereas the second most common haplotype (37% of individuals) has so far only been recorded in Sweden. The disjunct distribution of genetic lineages is in line with an assumption that the Norwegian coastline was postglacially colonised both from the south as well as across mountain passes from the east. Our data support previous studies on the phylogeography of Fennoscandinavia that revealed that post-glacial recolonisation patterns led to a pronounced spatial structure of local populations.

Key words: phylogeography, Fennoscandinavia, cytb, mitochondrial DNA, Bufonidae