• ancient DNA
• Lutrogale perspicillata
• Mesopotamia
• molecular phylogeography

The smooth-coated otter (Lutrogale perspicillata, Mustelidae) is classified as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN and included in the Appendix II of CITES. Its population size has likely declined by more than 30% in the last 30 years especially because of habitat fragmentation and loss, illegal trade and poaching. Three morphological subspecies are recognized: L. p. perspicillata in southeastern and central Asia; L. p. sindica, in Pakistan (Sindh Province) and India (Gujarat only); L. p. maxwelli in the Mesopotamian marshes of southern Iraq yet recently discovered also in Kurdistan (North Iraq). Distribution and genetic identity of L. perspicillata are uncertain in Iraq. This thesis attempts to fill this gap and to reconstruct the molecular phylogeography of the species in order to provide the first genetic evidence for the occurrence of distinct Evolutionary Significant Units (ESUs) possibly corresponding to the known morphological subspecies. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (Cytochrome-b, 1,140 bp-long, Cyt-b) were obtained from L. perspicillata modern samples collected in southern (Mesopotamia, n= 7) and northern (Kurdistan, n = 3) Iraq as well as in central and eastern Asia (nine countries, n = 46) and aligned with sequences from the GenBank (n = 73, total). A 307 bp-long Cyt-b fragment was investigated in two modern samples and 16 L. p. perspicillata specimens resident to the collections of US and European natural history museums. These sequences were aligned with the previous ones and two unpublished more into a second alignment (n = 88, total) in a second alignment. Haplotype network and phylogenetic reconstructions were carried out independently for each alignment. Six out of the Iraqi samples were genetically identified as L. p. maxwelli (single private haplotype) and mostly recovered in the Al-Hawizeh Marsh while four more were assigned to the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra (including all samples from Kurdistan). We provided first genetic evidence for the endemicity-to Iraq of L. p. maxwelli, although we could not confirm recent major extension of the species’ range to Kurdistan. As far as the whole smooth-coated otter range is concerned, we identified three distinct haplogroups each corresponding to any given morphological subspecies. However, samples collected in Bangladesh (n = 2) and Nepal (n = 1), two countries formally included in the L. p. perspicillata range, grouped with L. p. sindica representatives. In the phylogenetic trees, each haplogroup was included in a robust and monophyletic L. perspicillata mtDNA lineage (i.e., first ESU criterion satisfied), although we could not infer the most credited geographic region as source for the adaptive radiation of the species. Surprisingly, nine smooth-coated otter modern samples collected in Singapore were included in the oriental small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea) clade, which was sister to that of L. perspicillata. Such A.cinerea-mtDNA introgressed L. perspicillata were likely descendant of hybrid otters. Finally, six out of 11 successfully investigated museum samples (from Wien, Paris and Chicago collections) were not assigned to L. perspicillata, yet to A. cinerea, A. capensis and L. lutra, thus suggesting that DNA analysis should be coupled to morphological investigation for suitable museum study skins especially of sympatric Asian otter species.