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Message: <blockquote data-quote="l_raty" data-source="post: 1204072" data-attributes="member: 24811">Drovetski et al. had three samples from this area, one alascensis from St Paul ('sp1'), one meligerus from Attu ('rwd24877') and one tanagensis from Adak ('ksw2720'). These are very close to the rest of the pacificus clade but, interestingly, they group together in the phylogenetic tree shown in the paper.See also <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-9332-6" target="_blank">http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-007-9332-6</a> (pdf currently freely available) - the birds of Attu, Adak and Commander Is (pallescens) belong to the W nearctic group (which, as a passing note, is therefore not strictly nearctic), but form a distinct cluster within this group and do not seem to share any haplotype with the birds of mainland AK and Kodiak.The distance is too small to suggest species status, but this still hints at some level of isolation/differentiation.Data from Kamchatka would be interesting too. The birds there are said by Dementiev to be the same race as those of Commander - if true, and if the latter belong to the W nearctic clade, it might be that there is an actual contact zone between this clade and the Asian clade to be found somewhere up there...indigenus is the subspecies found on mainland GB and Ireland, and is rather poorly differentiated from nominate troglodytes (particularly in the southern part of its range). I don't think there are any published genetic data pertaining to the northern island populations, among which are the morphologically more distinct taxa.islandicus from Iceland would surely deserves attention, too.Cheers,Laurent -</blockquote>

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