Ancient DNA reveals interstadials as a main driver of the temperate common vole (Microtus arvalis) population dynamics during the Last Glacial Period

The common vole is a temperate rodent widespread across Europe. Phylogeographic studies of its extant populations suggested the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as one of the main drivers of the species’ population history. However, analyses based solely on extant genetic diversity may not recover the full complexity of Late Pleistocene population dynamics. To reconstruct the population history of the common vole through the Last Glacial Period, we analysed a 4.2 kb-long fragment of mitochondrial DNA of 148 ancient and 51 modern specimens, sampled from across Europe, and covering the last 60 thousand years (ka). We estimate the time to the most recent common ancestor of Last Glacial common vole lineages to 90 ka ago and the diversification of the main extant lineages to between 55 and 40 ka ago, substantially earlier than previously estimated. Our data suggests multiple lineage turnovers in Europe at the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Conversely, data from the Western Carpathians suggest continuity throughout the LGM. This further suggests that climate amelioration during MIS 2 had little impact on common voles and that the main driver of population dynamics was the reduction of open habitats during the interstadial periods.