A 10-year study of mule and black-tailed deer has found unique subspecies created by the animals' responses to climate change thousands of years ago.
Gene Rhodes, Purdue University professor of forestry and natural resources, said DNA analysis of more than 1,700 deer throughout North America shows how the movement of glaciers segregated certain groups of deer and how that affected their genetic makeup.
Glacial movement about 18,000 years ago isolated mule deer and black-tailed deer to areas that were suitable for their survival, sometimes cutting them off from each other. Those groups -- located in Alaska and Canada, and south along the U.S. West Coast to Mexico -- evolved genetically to deal with those conditions, creating several subspecies.
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