Table 4.

Estimated divergence times (years) among the five European wildcat biogeographic groups computed using the microsatellite genetic distance δμ ² (Goldstein et al. 1995b), and two microsatellite mutation rates: μ = 5.60 × 10⁻⁴ (below the diagonal) and μ = 2.05 × 10⁻⁴ (above the diagonal)

	Central Europe	Central Germany	Alps
Central Europe	–	31,221	277,921
Central Germany	114,290	–	279,762
Alps	101,739	102,413	–

	Alps	Apennines	Sicily
Alps	–	61,179	63,756
Apennines	22,396	–	54,701
Sicily	23,339	20,025	–

Samples from central Europe include wildcats collected in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and south‐western Germany; while Alps regroups cats sampled in Italian north‐eastern Alps, Slovenia, Austria and Bosnia‐Herzegovina. Moreover, all cats collected in the Italian western and central‐southern Apennines were indicated as Apennines.