Aim Spatio‐temporal changes have likely caused range fragmentation and population isolation, which could have given rise to the observed current intraspecific differentiation in some species. Here, we test several hypotheses on the potential effect of Pleistocene glacial cycles in the diversification of Arctic shorebird species, comparing between different scenarios of fragmentation of the breeding distribution during glacial...

Aim During the Plio‐Pleistocene, glacial cycles shaped Northern Hemisphere species' distributions causing range contractions followed by interglacial expansions. In migratory bird species, climatic changes could result in a rapid reshaping of their ranges and/or migratory behaviour, given their dispersal capacity. In this context, it has been suggested that long‐distance North American migratory species could have lost their m...