Taxonomy of the Dingo: It’s an ancient dog

Jackson, Stephen; Fleming, Peter J. S.; Eldridge, Mark D. B.; Archer, Michael; Ingleby, Sandy; Johnson, Rebecca N.; Helgen, Kristofer M.

doi:10.7882/az.2020.049

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…There is controversy concerning the evolutionary affinities of the dingo ( 3 , 7 , 8 ), but a recent paper concluded that the most appropriate taxonomic name is Canis familiaris ( 9 ). Within dingoes, at least two ecotypes exist, desert and alpine ( 2 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs

et al. 2022

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Dogs are uniquely associated with human dispersal and bring transformational insight into the domestication process. Dingoes represent an intriguing case within canine evolution being geographically isolated for thousands of years. Here, we present a high-quality de novo assembly of a pure dingo (CanFam_DDS). We identified large chromosomal differences relative to the current dog reference (CanFam3.1) and confirmed no expanded pancreatic amylase gene as found in breed dogs. Phylogenetic analyses using variant pairwise matrices show that the dingo is distinct from five breed dogs with 100% bootstrap support when using Greenland wolf as the outgroup. Functionally, we observe differences in methylation patterns between the dingo and German shepherd dog genomes and differences in serum biochemistry and microbiome makeup. Our results suggest that distinct demographic and environmental conditions have shaped the dingo genome. In contrast, artificial human selection has likely shaped the genomes of domestic breed dogs after divergence from the dingo.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs

et al. 2022

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“…We follow the precedent that when zoologists disagree over whether a certain population is a subspecies or a full species, the species name may be written in parentheses. Scientists advocating a General Lineage Species Concept consider dingoes to be distinct species (Canis dingo) or a subspecies of domestic dog (Canis familiaris dingo) [9][10][11]. Others advocating a Biological Species Concept [12] consider the dingo to be a breed of dog (Canis familiaris breed dingo) due to the interfertility between dingo and domestic dog [11,13,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scientists advocating a General Lineage Species Concept consider dingoes to be distinct species ( Canis dingo ) or a subspecies of domestic dog ( Canis familiaris dingo ) [9-11]. Others advocating a Biological Species Concept [12] consider the dingo to be a breed of dog ( Canis familiaris breed dingo) due to the interfertility between dingo and domestic dog [11, 13, 14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Australasian dingo archetype:De novochromosome-length genome assembly, DNA methylome, and cranial morphology

Ballard

Field

Edwards

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Background: One difficulty in testing the hypothesis that the Australasian dingo is a functional intermediate between wild wolves and domesticated breed dogs is that there is no reference specimen. Here we link a high-quality de novo long read chromosomal assembly with epigenetic footprints and morphology to describe the Alpine dingo female named Cooinda. It was critical to establish an Alpine dingo reference because this ecotype occurs throughout coastal eastern Australia where the first drawings and descriptions were completed. Findings: We generated a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome assembly (Canfam_ADS) using a combination of Pacific Bioscience, Oxford Nanopore, 10X Genomics, Bionano, and Hi-C technologies. Compared to the previously published Desert dingo assembly, there are large structural rearrangements on Chromosomes 11, 16, 25 and 26. Phylogenetic analyses of chromosomal data from Cooinda the Alpine dingo and nine previously published de novo canine assemblies show dingoes are monophyletic and basal to domestic dogs. Network analyses show that the mtDNA genome clusters within the southeastern lineage, as expected for an Alpine dingo. Comparison of regulatory regions identified two differentially methylated regions within glucagon receptor GCGR and histone deacetylase HDAC4 genes that are unmethylated in the Alpine dingo genome but hypermethylated in the Desert dingo. Morphological data, comprising geometric morphometric assessment of cranial morphology place dingo Cooinda within population-level variation for Alpine dingoes. Magnetic resonance imaging of brain tissue show she had a larger cranial capacity than a similar-sized domestic dog. Conclusions: These combined data support the hypothesis that the dingo Cooinda fits the spectrum of genetic and morphological characteristics typical of the Alpine ecotype. We propose that she be considered the archetype specimen for future research investigating the evolutionary history, morphology, physiology, and ecology of dingoes. The female has been taxidermically prepared and is now at the Australian Museum, Sydney.

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“…Australia has a large and widely distributed population of free-ranging, wild-living dogs. These animals are all members of the species Canis familiaris 1 , 2 and include the ancient pure-bred Australian dingoes, (very rarely) stray or feral modern domestic dog breeds, and a swarm of hybrids (≡ cross-breeds) with varying dingo and modern domestic dog lineage 3 , 4 . These are collectively called “wild dogs” in much of Australian legislation, policy and management strategies 5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An isolated population reveals greater genetic structuring of the Australian dingo

Stephens¹,

Fleming

Sawyers

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The Australian dingo is a recent anthropogenic addition to the Australian fauna, which spread rapidly across the continent and has since widely interbred with modern dogs. Genetic studies of dingoes have given rise to speculation about their entry to the continent and subsequent biogeographic effects, but few studies of their contemporary population structure have been conducted. Here we investigated the dingo ancestry and population structure of free-living dogs in western Victoria and contrasted it with a wider southern Australian sample. We wished to determine whether their geographic isolation was mirrored in genetic isolation. To address this question, we analysed 34 microsatellite markers using Bayesian clustering and discriminant analysis of principal components, and summarised genetic diversity at the population and individual level. The broader southern Australia sample (n = 1138) comprised mostly hybrid animals, with 30% considered pure dingoes. All western Victorian individuals (n = 59) appeared to be hybrids with high dingo ancestry. The population showed no evidence of admixture with other populations and low genetic diversity on all measures tested. Based upon our characterisation of this unusual mainland population, we advise against assuming homogeneity of dingoes across the continent.

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Taxonomy of the Dingo: It’s an ancient dog

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs

The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs

The Australasian dingo archetype:De novochromosome-length genome assembly, DNA methylome, and cranial morphology

An isolated population reveals greater genetic structuring of the Australian dingo

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