Editing Dingo (section)

===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/>