Phylogenetic
analysis of mitochondrial
DNA sequences identifies two distinct genetic clades among North
American
pine marten. The distribution of these clades corresponds to the
ranges
of two groups that have been recognized on morphological grounds,
namely
the eastern and northern "americana" group and the southern and
western "caurina" group. Pairwise sequence divergences between
these
groups are as great as those between Palearctic species of Martes.
This maximum parsimony tree is rooted with respect to the genotype of
the
fisher (M. pennanti). Branch lengths are proportional to the
inferred
number of nucleotide substitutions that occur on that branch. Numbers
in
bold below each branch indicate the percent occurrence of that group in
1,000 bootstrap replicates. (Figure 2 of Carr & Hicks 1997)
All text material © 2004 by Steven M. Carr