Prior to the hypothesized re-colonization of North America, which was puma shoes therefore inferred to be even more recent. The estimated demographic history supports the interpretation that pumas suffered a severe demographic decline in the Late Pleistocene throughout their distribution, followed by population expansion and re-colonization of the range, initiating from South America.The puma ( Puma concolor Linnaeus, 1771) is a large felid that ranges throughout the Americas.

Pumas have remarkable dispersal capabilities ( Maehr et al. , 2002 ; Beier et al. , 2003 ) and successfully occupy a diverse array of habitats, illustrating their potential to adapt to the breadth of environmental conditions occurring across the continent, from tropical forests and marshes to dry scrubland and cold Andean puma trainers or Patagonian biomes ( Redford and Eisenberg, 1992 ; Nowak, 1999 ). Pumas are solitary and territorial, with large home ranges.

Females tend to occupy smaller areas and disperse shorter distances, thus being more philopatric than males ( puma suede Logan and Sweanor, 2001 ; Maehr et al. , 2002 ). Overall, the species' ecological flexibility and dispersal capabilities have the potential to induce broad genetic connectivity across large geographic areas, unless historical barriers have limited gene flow among populations.Fossil evidence indicates that pumas were already present in North America 0.4 million years ago (MYA) ( Kurtén and Anderson, 1980 ).

In parallel, molecular data ( Johnson et al. , 2006 ) have led to an estimate of puma sliders its divergence from the sister-species P. yagouaroundi of 4.17 MYA (C.I.: 3.16 6.01MYA), suggesting a much longer history as a distinct evolutionary lineage. The speciation event that separated these lineages may have occurred in North or South America, with the molecular dating estimate supporting the former, as it tends to predate the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) (ca. 2.5 3.5 MYA).

2000 ; Trinca et al. , 2012 ). In a previous study focusing on pumas ( Culver et al. , 2000 ), three mtDNA segments were employed ( ND5 , 16S and ATP8 ). Of these, ND5 showed the highest polymorphic content in this species, based on a segment spanning 318 bp. A new primer set for this gene was designed specifically for carnivores ( Trigo et al. , 2008 ), amplifying puma uk a longer fragment ( ca. 750 bp) and exhibiting successful amplification across several families .

Culver et al. , 2000 ; Castilho et al. , 2011 ; Miotto et al. , 2011 , 2012 ). Therefore, as a whole we collected novel data from a total of 186 individuals. These samples were originated from a diverse array of geographic regions throughout most of the puma range, with greater emphasis on South America (see Table S1 ). Two samples of Puma yagouaroundi were also included to be used as outgroups in some analyses.To select a marker that would provide suitable information levels.