Analysis of 182 mitochondrial COI sequences from the North Atlantic snail Nucella lapillus revealed high degrees of genetic diversity and structure among populations in Spain and Portugal. Comparatively low diversities, a distinct lack of structure or deep phylogenetic divergence in northern Europe and America supports the hypothesis that the Iberian Peninsula might have been a source of recolonisation of northern after Pleistocene glaciation. The complex genetic structure and presumably old lineages in the Iberian populations provides evidence for a long phylogeographic history shaped by evolutionary dynamics, demographic and climatic changes and a variable physical environment.
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