Editing Dingo (section)

==Taxonomy==
{{Further|Canis lupus dingo#Taxonomic debate – the domestic dog, the dingo, and New Guinea Singing Dog}}
[[File:Dog of New South Wales.jpg|thumb|"Dog of New South Wales" illustrated in ''The Voyage of [[Arthur Phillip|Governor Phillip]] to [[Botany Bay]]'' in 1788<ref name=mazell1789/>]]

Dogs associated with indigenous people were first recorded by [[Jan Carstenszoon]] in the [[Cape York Peninsula]] area in 1623.<ref name=ireland1947/> In 1699, Captain [[William Dampier]] visited the coast of what is now [[Western Australia]] and recorded that "my men saw two or three beasts like hungry wolves, lean like so many skeletons, being nothing but skin and bones".<ref name=dampier1699/> In 1788, the [[First Fleet]] arrived in Botany Bay under the command of Australia's first colonial governor, [[Arthur Phillip]], who took ownership of a dingo<ref name=tench1789/> and in his journal made a brief description with an illustration of the "Dog of New South Wales".<ref name=mazell1789/> In 1793, based on Phillip's brief description and illustration, the "Dog of New South Wales" was classified by [[Friedrich Albrecht Anton Meyer|Friedrich Meyer]] as ''Canis dingo''.<ref name=meyer1793/>

In 1999, a study of the maternal lineage through the use of [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mDNA) as a [[genetic marker]] indicates that the dingo and New Guinea singing dog developed at a time when human populations were more isolated from each other.<ref name=wayne1999/> In the third edition of ''[[Mammal Species of the World]],'' published in 2005, the mammalogist [[W. Christopher Wozencraft]] listed under the wolf ''Canis lupus'' its wild subspecies, and proposed two additional subspecies: "''familiaris'' Linnaeus, 1758 [domestic dog]" and "''dingo'' Meyer, 1793 [domestic dog]". Wozencraft included ''hallstromi''—the New Guinea singing dog—as a [[taxonomic synonym]] for the dingo. He referred to the mDNA study as one of the guides in forming his decision.<ref name=wozencraft2005/> The inclusion of ''familiaris'' and ''dingo'' under a "domestic dog" clade has been noted by other mammalogists,<ref name=jackson2017/> and their classification under the wolf debated.<ref name=smithC1/>

In 2019, a workshop hosted by the [[IUCN]]/SSC Canid Specialist Group considered the New Guinea singing dog and the dingo to be feral dogs (''Canis familiaris''), which therefore should not be assessed for the [[IUCN Red List]].<ref name=IUCN_CSG/>

In 2020, the [[American Society of Mammalogists]] considered the dingo a synonym of the domestic dog.<ref>{{BioRef|asm|id=1005940|title=''Canis familiaris'' |version=1.5 |access-date=20 September 2021}}</ref> Recent [[DNA sequencing]] of a 'pure' wild dingo from South Australia suggests that the dingo has a different [[DNA methylation]] pattern to the German Shepherd.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Field |first1=Matt A. |last2=Yadav |first2=Sonu |last3=Dudchenko |first3=Olga |last4=Esvaran |first4=Meera |last5=Rosen |first5=Benjamin D. |last6=Skvortsova |first6=Ksenia |last7=Edwards |first7=Richard J. |last8=Keilwagen |first8=Jens |last9=Cochran |first9=Blake J. |last10=Manandhar |first10=Bikash |last11=Bustamante |first11=Sonia |date=2022-04-22 |title=The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=8 |issue=16 |pages=eabm5944 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abm5944 |pmid=35452284 |pmc=9032958 |bibcode=2022SciA....8M5944F |issn=2375-2548}}</ref> In 2024, a study found that the Dingo and New Guinea singing dog show 5.5% genome introgression from the ancestor of the recently extinct [[Japanese wolf]], with Japanese dogs showing 4% genome introgression. This introgression occurred before the ancestor of the Japanese wolf arrived in Japan.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Japanese wolves are most closely related to dogs and share DNA with East Eurasian dogs|last1=Gojobori|first1=J|journal=Nature Communications|date=February 2024|volume=15 |issue=1 |page=1680 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-46124-y|pmid=38396028 |pmc=10891106 |bibcode=2024NatCo..15.1680G }}</ref>

===Domestic status===
The dingo is regarded as a [[feral]] dog because it descended from domesticated ancestors.<ref name=greig2016/><ref name=jackson2017/> The dingo's relationship with Indigenous Australians is one of [[commensalism]], in which two organisms live in close association, but do not depend on each other for survival. They both hunt and sleep together. The dingo is, therefore, comfortable enough around humans to associate with them, but is still capable of living independently.<ref name=pierotti2017/> Any free-ranging, unowned dog can be socialised to become an owned dog, as some dingoes do when they join human families.<ref name=miklosi2015/> Although the dingo exists in the wild,<ref name=smithC3/> it associates with humans, but has not been [[Selective breeding|selectively bred]] unlike other [[Domestication|domesticated]] animals.<ref name=jackson2015/><ref name=smithC3/> Therefore, its status as a domestic animal is not clear.<ref name=jackson2015/> Whether the dingo was a wild or domesticated species was not clarified from Meyer's original description, which translated from the German language reads:

<blockquote>It is not known if it is the only dog species in New South Wales, and if it can also still be found in the wild state; however, so far it appears to have lost little of its wild condition; moreover, no divergent varieties have been discovered.<ref name=meyer1793/></blockquote>

===History===
The earliest known dingo remains, found in Western Australia, date to 3,450 years ago.<ref name="greig2016" /><ref name="jackson2015" /><ref name="smithC3" /> Based on a comparison of modern dingoes with these early remains, dingo morphology has not changed over these thousands of years. This suggests that no artificial selection has been applied over this period and that the dingo represents an early form of dog.<ref name="smithC3" /> They have lived, bred, and undergone natural selection in the wild, isolated from other dogs until the arrival of European settlers, resulting in a unique breed.<ref name="clutton2015" /><ref name="crowther2014" />

In 2020, an mDNA study of ancient dog remains from the [[Yellow River]] and [[Yangtze River]] basins of southern China showed that most of the ancient dogs fell within haplogroup A1b, as do the Australian dingoes and the pre-colonial dogs of the Pacific, but in low frequency in China today. The specimen from the [[Hemudu culture|Tianluoshan archaeological site]], [[Zhejiang]] province dates to 7,000&nbsp;YBP ([[years before present]]) and is [[Basal (phylogenetics)|basal]] to the entire haplogroup A1b lineage. The dogs belonging to this haplogroup were once widely distributed in southern China, then dispersed through Southeast Asia into New Guinea and Oceania, but were replaced in China by dogs of other lineages 2,000&nbsp;YBP.<ref name="Zhang2020" />

The oldest reliable date for dog remains found in mainland Southeast Asia is from Vietnam at 4,000&nbsp;YBP, and in [[Island Southeast Asia]] from [[Timor-Leste]] at 3,000&nbsp;YBP.<ref name=balme2018/> The earliest dingo remains in the [[Torres Straits]] date to 2,100&nbsp;YBP. In New Guinea, the earliest dog remains date to 2,500–2,300 YBP from Caution Bay near [[Port Moresby]], but no ancient New Guinea singing dog remains have been found.<ref name=greig2016/>

The earliest dingo skeletal remains in Australia are estimated at 3,450&nbsp;YBP from the Mandura Caves on the [[Nullarbor Plain]], south-eastern [[Western Australia]];<ref name=greig2016/><ref name=jackson2015/> 3,320&nbsp;YBP from Woombah Midden near [[Woombah, New South Wales]]; and 3,170&nbsp;YBP from Fromme's Landing on the [[Murray River]] near [[Mannum]], [[South Australia]].<ref name=jackson2015/> Dingo bone fragments were found in a rock shelter located at [[Mount Burr, South Australia]], in a layer that was originally dated 7,000–8,500 YBP.<ref name=milham2010/> Excavations later indicated that the levels had been disturbed, and the dingo remains "probably moved to an earlier level."<ref name=smithC1/><ref name=gollan1984/> The dating of these early Australian dingo fossils led to the widely held belief that dingoes first arrived in Australia 4,000 YBP and then took 500 years to disperse around the continent.<ref name=smithC3/> However, the timing of these skeletal remains was based on the dating of the sediments in which they were discovered, and not the specimens themselves.<ref name=balme2018/>

In 2018, the oldest skeletal bones from the Madura Caves were directly carbon dated between 3,348 and 3,081 YBP, providing firm evidence of the earliest dingo and that dingoes arrived later than had previously been proposed. The next-most reliable timing is based on desiccated flesh dated 2,200&nbsp;YBP from Thylacine Hole, 110&nbsp;km west of Eucla on the Nullarbor Plain, southeastern Western Australia. When dingoes first arrived, they would have been taken up by Indigenous Australians, who then provided a network for their swift transfer around the continent. Based on the recorded distribution time for dogs across Tasmania and cats across Australia once indigenous Australians had acquired them, the dispersal of dingoes from their point of landing until they occupied continental Australia is proposed to have taken only 70 years.<ref name=balme2018/> The red fox is estimated to have dispersed across the continent in only 60–80 years.<ref name=smithC3/>

At the end of the [[last glacial maximum]] and the associated rise in sea levels, Tasmania became separated from the Australian mainland 12,000&nbsp;YBP,<ref name=lyndall2012/> and New Guinea 6,500<ref name=cairns2016/>–8,500 YBP<ref name=cairns2016/><ref name=bourke2009/> by the inundation of the [[Sahul Shelf]].<ref name=monash2015/> Fossil remains in Australia date to around 3,500&nbsp;YBP and no dingo remains have been uncovered in Tasmania, so the dingo is estimated to have arrived in Australia at a time between 3,500 and 12,000 YBP. To reach Australia through [[Maritime Southeast Asia|Island Southeast Asia]] even at the lowest sea level of the last glacial maximum, a journey of at least {{convert|50|km}} over open sea between ancient [[Sunda Shelf|Sunda]] and Sahul was necessary, so they must have accompanied humans on boats.<ref name=savolainen2004/>

===Phylogeny===
{{Further|Canis lupus dingo#Lineage}}
[[Image:Map of Sunda and Sahul.png|upright=1.35|thumb|The [[Sahul Shelf]] and the [[Sunda Shelf]] during the past 12,000&nbsp;years: Tasmania separated from the mainland 12,000&nbsp;{{sc|[[YBP]]}},<ref name=lyndall2012/> and New Guinea separated from the mainland 6,500<ref name=cairns2016/>–8,500&nbsp;{{sc|[[YBP]]}}.<ref name=cairns2016/><ref name=bourke2009/>]]

[[Whole genome sequencing]] indicates that, while dogs are a [[Genetic divergence|genetically divergent]] subspecies of the grey wolf,<ref name=fan2016/> the dog is not a descendant of the extant grey wolf. Rather, these are sister taxa which share a common ancestor from a [[ghost population]] of wolves that disappeared at the end of the [[Late Pleistocene]].<ref name=freedman2014/> The dog and the dingo are not separate species.<ref name=fan2016/> The dingo and the [[Basenji]] are [[Basal (phylogenetics)|basal]]{{efn|"The term ''[[Basal (phylogenetics)|basal taxon]]'' refers to a lineage that diverges early in the history of the group and lies on a branch that originates near the common ancestor of the group".{{nowrap| — Reece (2015)<ref name=reece2015/>}} }} members of the domestic dog clade.<ref name=fan2016/><ref name=koepfli2015/><ref name=freedman2014/>

[[Mitochondrial genome]] sequences indicate that the dingo falls within the domestic dog clade,<ref name=thalmann2013/> and that the New Guinea singing dog is genetically closer to those dingoes that live in southeastern Australia than to those that live in the northwest.<ref name=cairns2016/> The dingo and New Guinea singing dog lineage can be traced back from Island Southeast Asia to Mainland Southeast Asia.<ref name=greig2016/> [[Gene flow]] from the genetically divergent [[Tibetan wolf#Lineage|Tibetan wolf]] forms 2% of the dingo's genome,<ref name=fan2016/> which likely represents ancient admixture in eastern Eurasia.<ref name=freedman2014/><ref name=wang2015/>

By the close of the [[Last Glacial Period|last ice age]] 11,700&nbsp;years ago, five ancestral dog lineages had diversified from each other, with one of these being represented today by the New Guinea singing dog.<ref name="Bergström2020"/> In 2020, the first whole [[genome]] sequencing of the dingo and the New Guinea singing dog was undertaken. The study indicates that the ancestral lineage of the dingo/New Guinea singing dog clade arose in southern [[East Asia]], migrated through Island Southeast Asia 9,900&nbsp;{{sc|[[YBP]]}}, and reached Australia 8,300&nbsp;{{sc|[[YBP]]}}; however, the human population which brought them remains unknown. The dingo's genome indicates that it was once a domestic dog which commenced a process of [[feral]]isation since its arrival 8,300&nbsp;years ago, with the new environment leading to changes in those genomic regions which regulate metabolism, neurodevelopment, and reproduction.<ref name=Zhang2020b/>

A 2016 genetic study shows that the lineage of those dingoes found today in the northwestern part of the Australian continent split from the lineage of the New Guinea singing dog and southeastern dingo 8,300&nbsp;years ago, followed by a split between the New Guinea singing dog lineage from the southeastern dingo lineage 7,800&nbsp;years ago. The study proposes that two dingo migrations occurred when sea levels were lower and Australia and New Guinea formed one landmass named [[Sahul Shelf|Sahul]]<ref name=cairns2016/><ref name=cairns2017/> that existed until 6,500–8,000 years ago.<ref name=smithC3/><ref name=cairns2016/><ref name=cairns2017/> Whole genome analysis of the dingo indicates there are three sub-populations which exist in Northeast (Tropical), Southeast (Alpine), and West/Central Australia (Desert).<ref name=Zhang2020b/> Morphological data showing the dingo skulls from Southeastern Australia (Alpine dingoes) being quite distinct from the other ecotypes. And [[Genomics|genomic]] and [[mitochondrial DNA]] sequencing demonstrating at least 2 dingo mtDNA haplotypes colonised Australia.<ref>{{Cite journal |journal=GigaScience |doi=10.1093/gigascience/giad018 |title=The Australasian dingo archetype: ''de novo'' chromosome-length genome assembly, DNA methylome, and cranial morphology |year=2023 |last1=Ballard |first1=J William O. |last2=Field |first2=Matt A. |last3=Edwards |first3=Richard J. |last4=Wilson |first4=Laura A B. |last5=Koungoulos |first5=Loukas G. |last6=Rosen |first6=Benjamin D. |last7=Chernoff |first7=Barry |last8=Dudchenko |first8=Olga |last9=Omer |first9=Arina |last10=Keilwagen |first10=Jens |last11=Skvortsova |first11=Ksenia |last12=Bogdanovic |first12=Ozren |last13=Chan |first13=Eva |last14=Zammit |first14=Robert |last15=Hayes |first15=Vanessa |last16=Aiden |first16=Erez Lieberman |volume=12 |pmid=36994871 |pmc=10353722 }}</ref>

In 2020, a genetic study found that the [[New Guinea singing dog#New Guinea Highland wild dog|New Guinea Highland wild dogs]] were genetically basal to the dingo and the New Guinea singing dog, and therefore the potential originator of both.<ref name=Surbakti2020>{{cite journal|title=New Guinea highland wild dogs are the original New Guinea singing dogs|year=2020|doi=10.1073/pnas.2007242117|last1=Surbakti|first1=Suriani|last2=Parker|first2=Heidi G.|last3=McIntyre|first3=James K.|last4=Maury|first4=Hendra K.|last5=Cairns|first5=Kylie M.|last6=Selvig|first6=Meagan|last7=Pangau-Adam|first7=Margaretha|last8=Safonpo|first8=Apolo|last9=Numberi|first9=Leonardo|last10=Runtuboi|first10=Dirk Y. P.|last11=Davis|first11=Brian W.|last12=Ostrander|first12=Elaine A.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=117|issue=39|pages=24369–24376|pmid=32868416|pmc=7533868|bibcode=2020PNAS..11724369S |doi-access=free}}</ref>