There is an increasing amount of geographically large-scale data on spatial genetic structure of African animals, which help to understand the evolutionary history of various types of African ecosystems. Most of these studies focus on lowland and montane forests, less on open savannah-like ecosystems, and only very few on desert and semi-desert areas. The aim of the diploma thesis is to use an integrative approach to analyse phylogeographic structure and processes in two little-known monotypic genera of gerbils, living in the marginal part of Sahara Desert: Pachyuromys in the North and Desmodilliscus in the South. There are two specific objectives: (i) To collect all available data on their contemporary distributions, produce and analyse multi-locus genetic data from recently collected and museum specimens, describe their genetic structure and reconstruct the evolutionary history; (ii) To model their present and past potential distributions, and reconstruct range expansion and contraction dynamics, using the maximum entropy species distribution modelling approach and bioclimatic data. The diploma thesis will be co-supervised by Zbyszek Boratynski and Pedro Tarroso (CIBIO-InBio Porto, Portugal).