Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography

0332767 - ÚŽFG 2010 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Searle, J. B. - Kotlík, Petr - Rambau, R.V. - Marková, Silvia - Herman, J.S. - McDevitt, A.D.
Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences. Roč. 276, č. 1677 (2009), s. 4287-4294. ISSN 0962-8452. E-ISSN 1471-2954
R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA600450701; GA AV ČR IAA600450901
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z50450515
Keywords : Phylogeography * Myodes glareolus * Celtic fringle
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 4.857, year: 2009

Recent genetic studies have challenged the traditional view that the ancestors of British Celtic people spread from central Europe during the Iron Age, and have suggested a much earlier origin for them as part of the human postglacial recolonization of Britain at the end of the last glaciation. The study shows that genetic lineages of the bank vole (Myodes glareolus) and of four other small mammal species also form a 'Celtic fringe'. It is argued that these small mammals most reasonably colonized Britain in a two-phase process following the last glaciation, with climatically-driven partial replacement of the first colonists by the second colonists, leaving a peripheral geographic distribution for the first colonists. We suggest that these natural Celtic fringes provide insight into the same phenomenon in humans and support its origin in processes following the end of the last glaciation.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0177912