Plio-Pleistocene diversification and genetic population structure of an endangered lizard (the Blue Mountains water skink, Eulamprus leuraensis) in south-eastern Australia

Aim Although climatic fluctuations occurred world-wide during the Pleistocene, the severity of glacial and drought events – and hence their influence on animal and plant biogeography – differed among regions. Many Holarctic species were forced to warmer-climate refugia during glacial periods, leaving the genetic signature of recent expansion and gene flow among modern-day populations. Montane south-eastern Australia experienced less extreme glaciation, but the effects of drier and colder climatic conditions over this period on biotic distributions, and hence on the present-day genetic structure of animal and plant populations, are poorly known.