Pumas have remarkable dispersal capabilities ( Maehr et puma creepers al. , 2002 ; Beier et al. , 2003 ) and successfully occupy a diverse array of habitats, illustrating their potential to adapt to the breadth of environmental conditions occurring across the continent, from tropical forests and marshes to dry scrubland and cold Andean or Patagonian biomes ( Redford and Eisenberg, 1992 ; Nowak, 1999 ). Pumas are solitary and territorial, with large home ranges.

Females tend to occupy smaller areas and disperse shorter distances, thus being more philopatric than males ( Logan and Sweanor, 2001 ; Maehr et al. , 2002 ). Overall, the species' ecological flexibility and dispersal capabilities have the potential to induce broad genetic connectivity across large geographic areas, unless puma rihanna historical barriers have limited gene flow among populations.Fossil evidence indicates that pumas were already present in North America 0.4 million years ago (MYA) ( Kurtén and Anderson, 1980 ).

In parallel, molecular data ( Johnson et al. , 2006 ) have puma fenty led to an estimate of its divergence from the sister-species P. yagouaroundi of 4.17 MYA (C.I.: 3.16 6.01MYA), suggesting a much longer history as a distinct evolutionary lineage. The speciation event that separated these lineages may have occurred in North or South America, with the molecular dating estimate supporting the former, as it tends to predate the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) (ca. 2.5 3.5 MYA).

Indicating that most of the species' historical subdivision occurred in that subcontinent. In addition, the genetic puma slides diversity within South America was found to be larger than in Central and North America, suggesting that pumas from the latter subcontinent actually derive from a recent re-colonization event, following extinction in North America in the Late Pleistocene (ca. 10,000 12,000 years ago).Within the mtDNA, the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 ( ND5 ) gene has been successfully used in phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies of felids and other carnivores ( e.g. Culver et al.

In the present study we employ this longer ND5 segment to investigate the evolutionary history of P. concolor , with emphasis on South American populations, which were previously found to harbor high levels of diversity and inferred to have played a key role in the historical demography of this species ( Culver et al. , 2000 ). Given that the geographic sampling of South American pumas was limited in that first puma fenty slides study, we aimed here to expand the representation of the various regions of this sub-continent.

Culver et al. , 2000 ; Castilho et al. , 2011 ; Miotto et al. , 2011 , 2012 ). Therefore, as a whole we collected novel data from a total of 186 individuals. These samples were originated from a diverse array of geographic regions throughout most of the puma range, with greater emphasis on South America (see Table S1 ). Two samples of Puma yagouaroundi were also included to be used as outgroups in some analyses.To select a marker that would provide suitable information levels.