Fig. 3

Phylogenetic ML tree and divergence time analysis of all Cervus clades based on the 21 SNP matrices. Phylogenetic analyses were conducted using maximum likelihood (ML) on inter-population SNP matrix, divergence times were estimated using MCMCTree 4.9e program, divergence time for R. tarandus and C. n. aplodontus 13.60–13.88 millions of years was used as time correction point. Phylogenetic ML tree of all Cervus clades based on the 21 SNP matrices showed that 5 clades that clearly separate C. eldii, C. unicolor, C. albirostris, C. elaphus and C. nippon with the highest bootstrap support. Our phylogenetic reconstruction indicated that the first evolutionary event of the genus Cervus occurred approximately 7.4 millions of years ago