Lyssavirus

The recent discovery of lyssavirus sequences from amphibians and reptiles challenges the mammalian origin of lyssaviruses. There is an 85% likelihood that these viruses originated in Palearctic.

Definition: The Palearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions. These include the Euro-Siberian region, the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, North Arabia, and Western, Central, and East Asia.

Date estimates (95% likelihood) for the most recent common ancestor of lyssaviruses were very broad. They ranged between 3,995 and 166,820 years before present. More research needs to be done to narrow that down.