Data from: Range-wide multilocus phylogeography of the red fox reveals ancient continental divergence, minimal genomic exchange, and distinct demographic histories

Widely distributed taxa provide an opportunity to compare biogeographic
responses to climatic fluctuations on multiple continents and to
investigate speciation. We conducted the most geographically and
genomically comprehensive study to date of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes),
the world's most widely distributed wild terrestrial carnivore.
Analyses of 697 bp of mitochondrial sequence in ~1000 individuals
suggested an ancient Middle Eastern origin for all extant red foxes and a
400 kya (SD = 139 kya) origin of the primary North American (Nearctic)
clade. Demographic analyses indicated a major expansion in Eurasia during
the last glaciation (~50 kya), coinciding with a previously described
secondary transfer of a single matriline (Holarctic) to North America. In
contrast, North American matrilines (including the transferred portion of
Holarctic clade) exhibited no signatures of expansion until the end of the
Pleistocene (~12 kya). Analyses of 11 autosomal loci from a subset of
foxes supported the colonization timeframe suggested by mtDNA (and the
fossil record) but, in contrast, reflected no detectable secondary
transfer, resulting in the most fundamental genomic division of red foxes
at the Bering Strait. Endemic continental Y-chromosome clades further
supported this pattern. Thus, intercontinental genomic exchange was
overall very limited, consistent with long-term reproductive isolation
since the initial colonization of North America. Based on continental
divergence times in other carnivoran species pairs, our findings support a
model of peripatric speciation and are consistent with the previous
classification of the North American red fox as a distinct species, V.
fulva.