Data from: On the origin of the Norwegian lemming

• Main Authors: Lagerholm, Vendela K., Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson, Ehrich, Dorothee, Abramson, Natalia I., Nadachowski, Adam, Kalthoff, Daniela C., Germonpré, Mietje, Angerbjörn, Anders, Stewart, John R., Dalén, Love
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2014
• Subjects: Lemmus; Holocene; Lemmus lemmus; Norwegian lemming
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jp8r1

The Pleistocene glacial cycles resulted in significant changes in species distributions, and it has been discussed whether this caused increased rates of population divergence and speciation. One species that is likely to have evolved during the Pleistocene is the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus). However, the origin of this species, both in terms of when and from what ancestral taxon it evolved, has been difficult to ascertain. Here, we use ancient DNA recovered from lemming remains from a series of Late Pleistocene and Holocene sites to explore the species' evolutionary history. The results revealed considerable genetic differentiation between glacial and contemporary samples. Moreover, the analyses provided strong support for a divergence time prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), therefore likely ruling out a postglacial colonization of Scandinavia. Consequently, it appears that the Norwegian lemming evolved from a small population that survived the LGM in an ice-free Scandinavian refugium. Lemmus sequence alignment for the partial dataset (172 bp) Combined mitochondrial data. Control region: position 1-96; Cytochrome b: position 97-172. Lemmus alignment partial dataset.fst Lemmus sequence alignment for the complete dataset (520 bp) Combined mitochondrial data. Control region: position 1-168; Cytochrome b: position 169-520. Lemmus alignment complete dataset.fst Lemmus.partial.11.7.inputBEAST Input file to BEAST, for analysing the partial dataset using a mutation rate of 11.7 % per million years Lemmus.partial.11.7.result.BEAST Tree file obtained from BEAST and summarised in TreeAnnotator. For the partial dataset using a mutation rate of 11.7 % per million years Lemmus partial_11,7_BEAST_outputTreeAnnotator Lemmus.partial.30.inputBEAST Input file to BEAST, for analysing the partial dataset using a mutation rate of 30 % per million years Lemmus.partial.30.result.BEAST Tree file obtained from BEAST and summarised in TreeAnnotator. For the partial dataset using a mutation rate of 30 % per million years ...