TY  - JOUR
A1  - Winter, Sven
A1  - Fennessy, Julian
A1  - Janke, Axel
T1  - Limited introgression supports division of giraffe into four species
T2  - Ecology and evolution
N2  - All giraffe (Giraffa) were previously assigned to a single species (G. camelopardalis) and nine subspecies. However, multi‐locus analyses of all subspecies have shown that there are four genetically distinct clades and suggest four giraffe species. This conclusion might not be fully accepted due to limited data and lack of explicit gene flow analyses. Here, we present an extended study based on 21 independent nuclear loci from 137 individuals. Explicit gene flow analyses identify less than one migrant per generation, including between the closely related northern and reticulated giraffe. Thus, gene flow analyses and population genetics of the extended dataset confirm four genetically distinct giraffe clades and support four independent giraffe species. The new findings support a revision of the IUCN classification of giraffe taxonomy. Three of the four species are threatened with extinction, and mostly occurring in politically unstable regions, and as such, require the highest conservation support possible.
KW  - conservation
KW  - gene flow
KW  - giraffe
KW  - hybridization
KW  - speciation
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/49194
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-491941
SN  - 2045-7758
N1  - This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 8
IS  - 20
SP  - 10156
EP  - 10165
PB  - John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
CY  - [s. l.]
ER  -