Where are you from, stranger? The enigmatic biogeography of North African pond turtles (Emys orbicularis)

Heiko Stuckas,Guillermo Velo-Antón,Soumia Fahd,Mohsen Kalboussi,Rachid Rouag,Marco Arculeo,Federico Marrone,Francesco Sacco,Melita Vamberger,Uwe Fritz. Organisms Diversity & Evolution. February 2014. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) is a Nearctic element in the African fauna and thought to have invaded North Africa from the Iberian Peninsula. All North African populations are currently identified with the subspecies E. o. occidentalis. However, a nearly range-wide sampling in North Africa used for analyses of mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA provides evidence that only Moroccan populations belong to this taxon, while eastern Algerian and Tunisian pond turtles represent an undescribed distinct subspecies. Leer más.