Inter- and intraspecific phylogeography of North American Odocoileus Deer based on mitochondrial DNA sequences

Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome b sequences identified four major mtDNA genotype assemblages among populations of Odocoileus in western North America. These assemblages correspond to northwestern black-tailed deer, southwestern mule deer, northwestern mule deer, and southwestern white-tailed deer. Approximate times ofthe divergence of these assemblages, calculated on the basis of pairwise nucleotide sequence divergence estimates, were used to construct a model of Odocoileus evolution in western North America. According to this model, black-tailed deer represent the ancestral Odocoileus mtDNA lineage. Mule deer and white-tailed deer diverged more recently in palaeontologicai history. The southwestern white-tailed deer mtDNA genotype assemblage is more closely related to the mule deer mtDNA assemblages than it is to the southeastern white-tailed deer lineage. This suggests that the southwestern white-tailed deer mtDNA lineage may have been effectively replaced by mule deer mtDNA through relatively recent hybridization between the two species. -- Microgeographic analysis of deer from southern Alberta revealed a considerable degree of geographic structuring of mtDNA sequence genotypes, as did qualitative analysis of the geographic distribution of mule deer and white-tailed deer mtDNA genotypes in California and Alberta. The phylogeographic structure may be maintained by philopatry of the female (or family) social units of Odocoileus deer, despite their potentially high vagility