Ancient Genomes Reveal Dingoes Are Not Related To Modern Domesticated Dogs

Newly recovered DNA shows modern dingoes share almost no genetic ancestry with domestic dogs but are descended from ancient canids from China

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K’gari dingo (Canis lupus dingo, C. lupus familiaris dingo, or C. dingo) with a tagged ear on K’gari (Fraser Island) in Queensland, Australia. Dingoes arrived in Australia between 3,000 and 8,000 years ago, according to new research. (Credit: Sam Fraser-Smith / CC BY 2.0)

New research by an international team of scientists reports that Australia’s dingoes have less in common with modern dogs than once thought, and are more ancient than previously realized. These new findings indicate that dingos are native species and thus, could receive increased conservation support and reduced shootings at the hands of farmers.

Remarkably, this team of researchers has, for the first time, recovered DNA from the ancient remains of dingos, dating to between 400 and 2746 years ago, including nine complete genomes and mitochondrial DNA sequences from 16 individuals from across the continent. The team compared the ancient DNA sequences to genomes from 11 modern dingoes, six New Guinea singing dogs and 372 domestic dogs, wolves and other canids that had been obtained by previous studies. This comparison reveals that the modern dingo population was already well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago — predating the introduction of domestic dogs to Australia by European colonists.