Abstract.

Based on more than 1100 samples of Emys orbicularis and E. trinacris, data on mtDNA diversity and distribution
of haplotypes are provided, including for the first time data for Armenia, Georgia, Iran, and the Volga, Ural and Turgay River
Basins of Russia and Kazakhstan. Eight mitochondrial lineages comprising 51 individual haplotypes occur in E. orbicularis,
a ninth lineage with five haplotypes corresponds to E. trinacris. A high diversity of distinct mtDNA lineages and haplotypes
occurs in the south, in the regions where putative glacial refuges were located. More northerly parts of Europe and adjacent Asia, which were recolonized by E. orbicularis in the Holocene, display distinctly less variation; most refuges did not contribute to northern recolonizations. Also in certain southern European lineages a decrease of haplotype diversity is
observed with increasing latitude, suggestive of Holocene range expansions on a smaller scale.