Comparison of Ancient Haplotypes with Modern Island Reed Vole Populations

Ancient (Medvezhyi Klyk Cave, Primorsky krai, Russia) and modern (island and coastal populations of Peter the Great Bay) mtDNA haplotypes of the reed vole were compared. Both ancient and modern vole haplotypes were divided into two groups. The first group included three ancient haplotypes dated >30 000 years BP and modern vole haplotypes from the islands of the Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago. The second group involved ancient haplotypes dated 2000–5000 years BP and modern vole haplotypes of young island populations and mainland populations. Two widely distributed haplotypes H1 and H7 were found in the second group, the latter identical to one of the ancient haplotypes. The voles of Matveyev and Bolshoy Pelis islands retained the most ancient haplotypes. The main haplogroup changed on the coastal territory after the isolation of islands of the Rimsky-Korsakov Archipelago.