Researchers are claiming a major breakthrough in cracking the genetic code of an iconic Australian animal that has been the source of controversy for years.
The international consortium of researchers has been looking at the genomic sequence of the pure Australian desert dingo to determine whether it is closer to wolves or dogs and to provide clarity around the hotly debated question of whether dingoes are the same as feral wild dogs.
The study, published today in Science Advances, found the answer lies somewhere in between and pure dingoes are an "intermediary" between wolves and domestic dog breeds.
"What the study showed was that it really is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs, [but] it's separate from them and it really sits off the branch from the ancestor wolf," Associate Professor Matthew Field from James Cook University said.
"We domesticated dogs — and it's hotly debated — somewhere between 14,000 and 29,000 years ago, is the latest estimate, and dingoes essentially arrived in Australia about 5,000 to 8,000 years ago.
"It really lived in isolation until about 200 years ago, when breed dogs were brought back to Australia, and what our study shows is that they really did adapt to the environment in Australia, they are unique to this ecosystem and sort of unique to the evolution of dogs as well."
The five-year study was led by La Trobe University and involved researchers from across the world, including Australia, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the US and England.
The pure desert dingo that was the source of the study, Sandy Malaki, was found on a roadside in the central Australian desert near the Strzlecki Track when she was three weeks old.
Dingo gene influences diet
Researchers said the full sequencing of Sandy Malaki's genome found key differences between dingoes and dogs that affect what they eat.
"A pure dingo has only one copy of the amylase gene, whereas domestic dogs have multiple copies, which influences the gut microbiome and, we predict, affects what dingoes eat," senior author Bill Ballard from La Trobe University said.
"If we're correct, what farmers currently assume are dingoes killing their stock, are likely to be feral wild dogs."
The role of dingoes in maintaining balance in Australia's ecosystem is widely debated.
"Dingoes are Australia's 'top order predator', meaning they influence everything in their environment," Professor Ballard said.
"If dingoes aren't given the protection they deserve, it will upset the country's ecological balance – potentially leading to environmental issues like erosion and species extinction."
