Slightly off-topic but ...

Some time ago we had an thread on Tweeters about the Red Fox in
Washington in particular "Are there still Cascade Red Foxes in the
mountains and if they were distinct species from the introduced
European Red fox?". So if you were interested in that topic you may be
interested in this.

That thread involved some pointers to Keith Aubry's papers. And some
wondering if only someone would do some DNA work on these foxes they
might be able to sort out if they are a distinct population and
perhaps a relict.

And so they have gone part of the way there (with historical
specimens) in this paper.

Mol Ecol. 2009 Jun;18(12):2668-86. Epub 2009 May 15.

Phylogeography of the North American red fox: vicariance in
Pleistocene forest refugia.
Aubry KB, Statham MJ, Sacks BN, Perrine JD, Wisely SM.
US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Olympia, WA
98512, USA.

Fossil, archaeological, and morphometric data suggest that indigenous
red foxes in North America were derived from vicariance in two
disjunct refugia during the last glaciation: one in Beringia and one
in the contiguous USA. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a
phylogeographical analysis of the North American red fox within its
presettlement range. We sequenced portions of the mitochondrial
cytochrome b (354 bp) gene and D-loop (342 bp) from 220 historical red
fox specimens. Phylogenetic analysis of the cytochrome b gene produced
two clades that diverged c. 400,000 years before present (bp): a
Holarctic and a Nearctic clade. D-loop analyses of the Nearctic clade
indicated three distinct subclades (> or = 99% Bayesian posterior
probability); two that were more recently derived (rho estimate c.
20,000 bp) and were restricted to the southwestern mountains and the
eastern portion of North America, and one that was older (rho estimate
c. 45,000 bp) and more widespread in North America. Populations that
migrated north from the southern refugium following deglaciation were
derived from the colonization of North America during or prior to the
Illinoian glaciation (300,000-130,000 bp), whereas populations that
migrated south from the northern refugium represent a more recent
colonization event during the Wisconsin glaciation (100,000-10,000
bp). Our findings indicate that Nearctic clade red foxes are
phylogenetically distinct from their Holarctic counterparts, and
reflect long-term isolation in two disjunct forest refugia during the
Pleistocene. The montane lineage, which includes endangered
populations, may be ecologically and evolutionarily distinct.

You can find the full paper here

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/cdcg/documents/Aubryetal2009.pdf

The trick to reading scientific papers like this is to read the
Abstract, then the Introduction, then skip to the Conclusion. Then (if
sufficiently interested) back up Discussion and if needed go through
the Methodology to see if you think you can believe the authors
conclusions. Don't be intimidated by the big words (just look them up
in Wikipedia to get some idea).

Or instead you can attend the talk.

Keith Aubry will be talking at the University of Washington Wildlife
Science seminar at 3:30pm Monday Nov 9 (i.e. today as I send this) in
Smith 120 on this subject.

http://www.cfr.washington.edu/courses/wildlifeseminar_Fall09.pdf

Nov 9 Phylogeography of the North American red fox: Vicariance in
Pleistocene forest
refugia

Smith Hall (SMI) is in the Quad.
Campus Map Location: 9-M
http://www.washington.edu/home/maps/northcentral.html?SMI

Should be interesting.
--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
twitter: at kevinpurcell