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Old dogs, new tricks: 3D geometric analysis of cranial morphology supports ancient population substructure in the Australian dingo

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Abstract

The dingo is a wild canid introduced to Australia within the last 5000 years. Existing research has identified up to three evolutionarily significant, geographically separated distinct populations of dingo on the Australian mainland. Contending explanations variably invoke ancient population substructure, separate introductions in antiquity, and disparate levels of recent domestic dog admixture. Here, I present an assessment of morphological variation in the dingo, applying 3D geometric morphometrics to compare the cranial forms of individuals from different regions in Australia, with the dingo’s closest relatives, New Guinea Singing Dogs, domestic dogs and dingo-dog hybrids. Dingoes from southeastern Australia were found to be morphologically distinct from conspecifics to their northwest, including both desert, tropical and Fraser Island dingoes, being intermediate to New Guinea Singing Dogs. The close resemblance of these results to genetic population subdivisions indicates that dingo morphology likely reflects ancient population substructure related to a complex prehistoric introduction and dispersal scenario, rather than solely introgression from domestic dogs.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to the Museums and their staff who assisted in my study of their collections: Sandy Ingleby, Harry Parnaby, Matthew McCurry and Allison Dejanovic at the Australian Museum; Denise Donlon at the Shellshear Museum; Jude Philp at the Macleay Museum; Karen Roberts and Tim Ziegler at Melbourne Museum, Leo Joseph and Chris Wilson at the CSIRO National Wildlife Collection; Heather Janetzki at the Queensland Museum; Gavin Dally and Rebecca Mirams at MAGNT, and Molly Hagemann at the Bishop Museum. I benefited from advice offered by Peter Hiscock and Amy Tabrett concerning Principal Components Analysis and allometry, from Kylie Cairns and Peter Savolainen regarding dingo population genetics, and general feedback from Val Attenbrow on this manuscript, as well as that of the anonymous reviewers. Thanks also go the providers of photographs of dingoes through Shutterstock.

Funding

This research was funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship, and further supported by the University of Sydney’s Carlyle-Greenwell Research Fund.

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  1. Department of Archaeology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Loukas Koungoulos

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Koungoulos, L. Old dogs, new tricks: 3D geometric analysis of cranial morphology supports ancient population substructure in the Australian dingo. Zoomorphology 139, 263–275 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-019-00475-z

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