Effective population size dynamics of Myotis vivesi during the pleistocene and holocene climatic changes

Myotis vivesi (Fish-eating Myotis) is an endemic species of the Gulf of California, Mexico. In this study, a 282 bp fragment of the mtDNA control region and six microsatellites loci were used to reconstruct its demographic history using summary and coalescent based statistics. Our results suggest that M. vivesi experienced a demographic population expansion between 230,000 to 50,000 years ago. After this expansion, M. vivesi experienced a slight reduction in the effective population size between 30,000 to 5,000 years ago and a spatial expansion in the last 5,000 years. Population changes observed in M. vivesi could be related to climatic changes that occurred in the Gulf of California in the Pleistocene and Holocene periods.