After the first investigation in the Hyrcanian forests of the northern Iran which documented the role of the forests as a major refugium during the last glacial maximum, we found new lineage in the eastern most parts of the region which indicate the existence of micro refuges within the Hyrcanian refugium. Our recent findings based on phylogenetic analysis of Fat dormouse (Glis glis) populations along the Hyrcanian refugium as a model species indicated considerable genetic distance between western most and eastern most populations. We found that the genetic divergence between Iranian Western and Eastern lineages over Hyrcanian Forests is greater than the previously reported overall distance between Iranian and European lineages. Hosting multiple lineages with deeper divergence than those observed in the European range of the species reflects long-standing paleontological history of old growth Hyrcanian forests for diversification and persistence of forest-dwelling species including fat dormouse.
