119-526: Canis familiaris Linnaeus, 1758 Canis familiaris dingo Meyer, 1793 The dingo (either included in the species Canis familiaris , or considered one of the following independent taxa : Canis familiaris dingo , Canis dingo , or Canis lupus dingo ) is an ancient ( basal ) lineage of dog found in Australia . Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scientific names presently applied in different publications. It
238-423: A mutation–selection balance . It is predicted that a viral quasispecies at a low but evolutionarily neutral and highly connected (that is, flat) region in the fitness landscape will outcompete a quasispecies located at a higher but narrower fitness peak in which the surrounding mutants are unfit, "the quasispecies effect" or the "survival of the flattest". There is no suggestion that a viral quasispecies resembles
357-405: A ring species . Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually , the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies. Although none of these are entirely satisfactory definitions, and while the concept of species may not be a perfect model of life, it is still a useful tool to scientists and conservationists for studying life on Earth, regardless of
476-583: A taxonomic synonym for the dingo. He referred to the mDNA study as one of the guides in forming his decision. The inclusion of familiaris and dingo under a "domestic dog" clade has been noted by other mammalogists, and their classification under the wolf debated. 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
595-400: A "classical" method of determining species, such as with Linnaeus, early in evolutionary theory. However, different phenotypes are not necessarily different species (e.g. a four-winged Drosophila born to a two-winged mother is not a different species). Species named in this manner are called morphospecies . In the 1970s, Robert R. Sokal , Theodore J. Crovello and Peter Sneath proposed
714-424: A 'smallest clade' idea" (a phylogenetic species concept). Mishler and Wilkins and others concur with this approach, even though this would raise difficulties in biological nomenclature. Wilkins cited the ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan 's early 20th century remark that "a species is whatever a suitably qualified biologist chooses to call a species". Wilkins noted that the philosopher Philip Kitcher called this
833-431: A black coat with a tan muzzle, chest, belly, legs, and feet and can be found in 12% of dingoes. Solid white can be found in 2% of dingoes and solid black 1%. Only three genes affect coat colour in the dingo compared with nine genes in the domestic dog. The ginger colour is dominant and carries the other three main colours – black, tan, and white. White dingoes breed true, and black and tan dingoes breed true; when these cross,
952-585: A common ancestor from a ghost population of wolves that disappeared at the end of the Late Pleistocene . The dog and the dingo are not separate species. The dingo and the Basenji are basal members of the domestic dog clade. Mitochondrial genome sequences indicate that the dingo falls within the domestic dog clade, and that the New Guinea singing dog is genetically closer to those dingoes that live in southeastern Australia than to those that live in
1071-464: 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. 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. In 2020, an MDNA study of ancient dog remains from
1190-428: A connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which can sexually interbreed with adjacent related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential gene flow between each "linked" population. Such non-breeding, though genetically connected, "end" populations may co-exist in the same region thus closing
1309-469: A custom dictionary. A partial online version is available at Google Books (see "External links" below). The Checklist Committee is charged with compiling and updating MSW. In its Annual Report for 2015, the Committee noted that it is under contract with Johns Hopkins Press for the 4th edition of MSW, which will be edited by DeeAnn M. Reeder and Kristofer M. Helgen. The database has been made editable for
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#17327901010791428-491: A difference existed between camp dingoes and wild dingoes as they had different names among indigenous tribes. The people of the Yarralin, Northern Territory , region frequently call those dingoes that live with them walaku , and those that live in the wilderness ngurakin . They also use the name walaku to refer to both dingoes and dogs. The colonial settlers of New South Wales wrote using the name dingo only for camp dogs. It
1547-432: A different species from its ancestors. Viruses have enormous populations, are doubtfully living since they consist of little more than a string of DNA or RNA in a protein coat, and mutate rapidly. All of these factors make conventional species concepts largely inapplicable. A viral quasispecies is a group of genotypes related by similar mutations, competing within a highly mutagenic environment, and hence governed by
1666-508: A genetic boundary suitable for defining a species concept is present. DNA barcoding has been proposed as a way to distinguish species suitable even for non-specialists to use. One of the barcodes is a region of mitochondrial DNA within the gene for cytochrome c oxidase . A database, Barcode of Life Data System , contains DNA barcode sequences from over 190,000 species. However, scientists such as Rob DeSalle have expressed concern that classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding, which they consider
1785-565: A group of large carnivores that are genetically closely related because their chromosomes number 78; therefore they can potentially interbreed to produce fertile hybrids . In the Australian wild there exist dingoes, feral dogs, and the crossings of these two, which produce dingo–dog hybrids . Most studies looking at the distribution of dingoes focus on the distribution of dingo-dog hybrids, instead. Dingoes occurred throughout mainland Australia before European settlement. They are not found in
1904-531: A heterotypical sequence have also been observed. The bark-howling starts with several barks and then fades into a rising and ebbing howl and is probably (similar to coughing) used to warn the puppies and members of the pack . Additionally, dingoes emit a sort of "wailing" sound, which they mostly use when approaching a watering hole , probably to warn already present dingoes. According to the present state of knowledge, getting Australian dingoes to bark more frequently by putting them in contact with other domestic dogs
2023-492: A misnomer, need to be reconciled, as they delimit species differently. Genetic introgression mediated by endosymbionts and other vectors can further make barcodes ineffective in the identification of species. A phylogenetic or cladistic species is "the smallest aggregation of populations (sexual) or lineages (asexual) diagnosable by a unique combination of character states in comparable individuals (semaphoronts)". The empirical basis – observed character states – provides
2142-420: 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. The red fox is estimated to have dispersed across the continent in only 60–80 years. At
2261-449: A particular species, including which genus (and higher taxa) it is placed in, is a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships and distinguishability of that group of organisms. As further information comes to hand, the hypothesis may be corroborated or refuted. Sometimes, especially in the past when communication was more difficult, taxonomists working in isolation have given two distinct names to individual organisms later identified as
2380-400: A short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but not to all. If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific name or epithet. The names of genera and species are usually printed in italics . However, abbreviations such as "sp." should not be italicised. When a species' identity is not clear,
2499-484: A similar manner to kangaroos, the difference being that a single dingo hunts using scent rather than sight and the hunt may last several hours. Dingo packs may attack young cattle and buffalo, but never healthy, grown adults. They focus on the sick or injured young. The tactics include harassing a mother with young, panicking a herd to separate the adults from the young, or watching a herd and looking for any unusual behaviour that might then be exploited. One 1992 study in
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#17327901010792618-404: A specialist may use "cf." before the epithet to indicate that confirmation is required. The abbreviations "nr." (near) or "aff." (affine) may be used when the identity is unclear but when the species appears to be similar to the species mentioned after. With the rise of online databases, codes have been devised to provide identifiers for species that are already defined, including: The naming of
2737-523: A species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. It has been argued that this definition is a natural consequence of the effect of sexual reproduction on the dynamics of natural selection. Mayr's use of the adjective "potentially" has been a point of debate; some interpretations exclude unusual or artificial matings that occur only in captivity, or that involve animals capable of mating but that do not normally do so in
2856-400: A species as determined by a taxonomist. A typological species is a group of organisms in which individuals conform to certain fixed properties (a type), so that even pre-literate people often recognise the same taxon as do modern taxonomists. The clusters of variations or phenotypes within specimens (such as longer or shorter tails) would differentiate the species. This method was used as
2975-491: A species. All species definitions assume that an organism acquires its genes from one or two parents very like the "daughter" organism, but that is not what happens in HGT. There is strong evidence of HGT between very dissimilar groups of prokaryotes , and at least occasionally between dissimilar groups of eukaryotes , including some crustaceans and echinoderms . The evolutionary biologist James Mallet concludes that there
3094-685: A species. Generally the term includes the unknown element of a distinct act of creation. Many authors have argued that a simple textbook definition, following Mayr's concept, works well for most multi-celled organisms , but breaks down in several situations: Species identification is made difficult by discordance between molecular and morphological investigations; these can be categorised as two types: (i) one morphology, multiple lineages (e.g. morphological convergence , cryptic species ) and (ii) one lineage, multiple morphologies (e.g. phenotypic plasticity , multiple life-cycle stages). In addition, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) makes it difficult to define
3213-549: A split between the New Guinea singing dog lineage from the southeastern dingo lineage 7,800 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 that existed until 6,500–8,000 years ago. Whole genome analysis of the dingo indicates there are three sub-populations which exist in Northeast (Tropical), Southeast (Alpine), and West/Central Australia (Desert). Morphological data showing
3332-648: 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. 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
3451-528: A taxonomic decision at the discretion of cognizant specialists, is not governed by the Codes of Zoological or Botanical Nomenclature, in contrast to the PhyloCode , and contrary to what is done in several other fields, in which the definitions of technical terms, like geochronological units and geopolitical entities, are explicitly delimited. The nomenclatural codes that guide the naming of species, including
3570-517: A traditional biological species. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses has since 1962 developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses; this has stabilised viral taxonomy. Most modern textbooks make use of Ernst Mayr 's 1942 definition, known as the Biological Species Concept as a basis for further discussion on the definition of species. It is also called a reproductive or isolation concept. This defines
3689-447: A variation on the morphological species concept, a phenetic species, defined as a set of organisms with a similar phenotype to each other, but a different phenotype from other sets of organisms. It differs from the morphological species concept in including a numerical measure of distance or similarity to cluster entities based on multivariate comparisons of a reasonably large number of phenotypic traits. A mate-recognition species
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3808-432: A variety of habitats, including the temperate regions of eastern Australia , the alpine moorlands of the eastern highlands , the arid hot deserts of Central Australia , and the tropical forests and wetlands of Northern Australia . The occupation of, and adaption to, these habitats may have been assisted by their relationship with indigenous Australians. A 20-year study of the dingo's diet was conducted across Australia by
3927-515: A variety of reasons. Viruses are a special case, driven by a balance of mutation and selection , and can be treated as quasispecies . Biologists and taxonomists have made many attempts to define species, beginning from morphology and moving towards genetics . Early taxonomists such as Linnaeus had no option but to describe what they saw: this was later formalised as the typological or morphological species concept. Ernst Mayr emphasised reproductive isolation, but this, like other species concepts,
4046-438: Is "an entity composed of organisms which maintains its identity from other such entities through time and over space, and which has its own independent evolutionary fate and historical tendencies". This differs from the biological species concept in embodying persistence over time. Wiley and Mayden stated that they see the evolutionary species concept as "identical" to Willi Hennig 's species-as-lineages concept, and asserted that
4165-400: Is a group of sexually reproducing organisms that recognise one another as potential mates. Expanding on this to allow for post-mating isolation, a cohesion species is the most inclusive population of individuals having the potential for phenotypic cohesion through intrinsic cohesion mechanisms; no matter whether populations can hybridise successfully, they are still distinct cohesion species if
4284-419: Is a medium-sized canid with a lean, hardy body that is adapted for speed, agility, and stamina. The head is the widest part of the body, wedge-shaped, and large in proportion to the body. Captive dingoes are longer and heavier than wild dingoes, as they have access to better food and veterinary care. The average wild dingo male weighs 15.8 kg (35 lb) and the female 14.1 kg (31 lb), compared with
4403-442: Is a relay pursuit until the prey is exhausted. A pack of dingoes is three times as likely to bring down a kangaroo than an individual because the killing is done by those following the lead chaser, which has also become exhausted. Two patterns are seen for the final stage of the attack. An adult or juvenile kangaroo is nipped at the hamstrings of the hind legs to slow it before an attack to the throat. A small adult female or juvenile
4522-458: Is a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment. According to this concept, populations form the discrete phenetic clusters that we recognise as species because the ecological and evolutionary processes controlling how resources are divided up tend to produce those clusters. A genetic species as defined by Robert Baker and Robert Bradley is a set of genetically isolated interbreeding populations. This
4641-414: Is between 8 and 8.7 million. About 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses ) are given a two-part name , called a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature , also sometimes in zoological nomenclature ). For example, Boa constrictor
4760-449: Is bitten on the neck or back by dingoes running beside it. In one area of Central Australia, dingoes hunt kangaroos by chasing them into a wire fence, where they become temporarily immobilised. The largest male red kangaroos tend to ignore dingoes, even when the dingoes are hunting the younger males and females. A large eastern grey kangaroo successfully fought off an attack by a single dingo that lasted over an hour. Wallabies are hunted in
4879-414: Is called speciation . Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book The Origin of Species . Speciation depends on a measure of reproductive isolation , a reduced gene flow. This occurs most easily in allopatric speciation, where populations are separated geographically and can diverge gradually as mutations accumulate. Reproductive isolation
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4998-403: Is described formally, in a publication that assigns it a unique scientific name. The description typically provides means for identifying the new species, which may not be based solely on morphology (see cryptic species ), differentiating it from other previously described and related or confusable species and provides a validly published name (in botany) or an available name (in zoology) when
5117-445: Is flattish, tapering after mid-length and does not curve over the back, but is carried low. When walking, the dingo's rear foot steps in line with the front foot, and these do not possess dewclaws . Dingoes in the wild live 3–5 years with few living past 7–8 years. Some have been recorded living up to 10 years. In captivity, they live for 14–16 years. One dingo has been recorded to live just under 20 years. The wolf-like canids are
5236-605: Is from Vietnam at 4,000 YBP , and in Island Southeast Asia from Timor-Leste at 3,000 YBP. The earliest dingo remains in the Torres Straits date to 2,100 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. The earliest dingo skeletal remains in Australia are estimated at 3,450 YBP from
5355-671: Is further weakened by the existence of microspecies , groups of organisms, including many plants, with very little genetic variability, usually forming species aggregates . For example, the dandelion Taraxacum officinale and the blackberry Rubus fruticosus are aggregates with many microspecies—perhaps 400 in the case of the blackberry and over 200 in the dandelion, complicated by hybridisation , apomixis and polyploidy , making gene flow between populations difficult to determine, and their taxonomy debatable. Species complexes occur in insects such as Heliconius butterflies, vertebrates such as Hypsiboas treefrogs, and fungi such as
5474-726: Is hard or even impossible to test. Later biologists have tried to refine Mayr's definition with the recognition and cohesion concepts, among others. Many of the concepts are quite similar or overlap, so they are not easy to count: the biologist R. L. Mayden recorded about 24 concepts, and the philosopher of science John Wilkins counted 26. Wilkins further grouped the species concepts into seven basic kinds of concepts: (1) agamospecies for asexual organisms (2) biospecies for reproductively isolated sexual organisms (3) ecospecies based on ecological niches (4) evolutionary species based on lineage (5) genetic species based on gene pool (6) morphospecies based on form or phenotype and (7) taxonomic species,
5593-403: Is no easy way to tell whether related geographic or temporal forms belong to the same or different species. Species gaps can be verified only locally and at a point of time. One is forced to admit that Darwin's insight is correct: any local reality or integrity of species is greatly reduced over large geographic ranges and time periods. The botanist Brent Mishler argued that the species concept
5712-478: Is not possible. However, German zoologist Alfred Brehm reported a dingo that learned the more "typical" form of barking and how to use it, while its brother did not. Whether dingoes bark or bark-howl less frequently in general is not certain. Species A species ( pl. : species) is a population of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring , typically by sexual reproduction . It
5831-478: Is not valid, notably because gene flux decreases gradually rather than in discrete steps, which hampers objective delimitation of species. Indeed, complex and unstable patterns of gene flux have been observed in cichlid teleosts of the East African Great Lakes . Wilkins argued that "if we were being true to evolution and the consequent phylogenetic approach to taxa, we should replace it with
5950-400: Is one of the species of the genus Boa , with constrictor being the species' epithet. While the definitions given above may seem adequate at first glance, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation , in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies , and in
6069-667: Is proposed that in New South Wales the camp dingoes only became wild after the collapse of Aboriginal society. Dogs associated with indigenous people were first recorded by Jan Carstenszoon in the Cape York Peninsula area in 1623. 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". In 1788,
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#17327901010796188-586: Is similar to Mayr's Biological Species Concept, but stresses genetic rather than reproductive isolation. In the 21st century, a genetic species could be established by comparing DNA sequences. Earlier, other methods were available, such as comparing karyotypes (sets of chromosomes ) and allozymes ( enzyme variants). An evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) or "wildlife species" is a population of organisms considered distinct for purposes of conservation. In palaeontology , with only comparative anatomy (morphology) and histology from fossils as evidence,
6307-482: Is sometimes an important source of genetic variation. Viruses can transfer genes between species. Bacteria can exchange plasmids with bacteria of other species, including some apparently distantly related ones in different phylogenetic domains , making analysis of their relationships difficult, and weakening the concept of a bacterial species. Mammal Species of the World Mammal Species of
6426-418: Is still capable of living independently. Any free-ranging, unowned dog can be socialised to become an owned dog, as some dingoes do when they join human families. Although the dingo exists in the wild, it associates with humans, but has not been selectively bred similarly to other domesticated animals. Therefore, its status as a domestic animal is not clear. Whether the dingo was a wild or domesticated species
6545-434: Is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity . Other ways of defining species include their karyotype , DNA sequence, morphology , behaviour, or ecological niche . In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes
6664-656: Is the dog, which in their language is called Dingo, and a good deal resembles the fox dog of England. These animals are equally shy of us, and attached to the natives. One of them is now in the possession of the Governor, and tolerably well reconciled to his new master. Related Dharug words include "ting-ko" meaning "bitch", and "tun-go-wo-re-gal" meaning "large dog". The dingo has different names in different indigenous Australian languages , such as boolomo , dwer-da , joogoong , kal , kurpany , maliki , mirigung , noggum , papa-inura , and wantibirri . Some authors propose that
6783-594: Is threatened by hybridisation, but this can be selected against once a pair of populations have incompatible alleles of the same gene, as described in the Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model . A different mechanism, phyletic speciation, involves one lineage gradually changing over time into a new and distinct form (a chronospecies ), without increasing the number of resultant species. Horizontal gene transfer between organisms of different species, either through hybridisation , antigenic shift , or reassortment ,
6902-434: Is variously considered a form of domestic dog not warranting recognition as a subspecies , a subspecies of dog or wolf , or a full species in its own right. The dingo is a medium-sized canine that possesses a lean, hardy body adapted for speed, agility, and stamina. The dingo's three main coat colourations are light ginger or tan, black and tan, or creamy white. The skull is wedge-shaped and appears large in proportion to
7021-519: The First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay under the command of Australia's first colonial governor, Arthur Phillip , who took ownership of a dingo and in his journal made a brief description with an illustration of the "Dog of New South Wales". In 1793, based on Phillip's brief description and illustration, the "Dog of New South Wales" was classified by Friedrich Meyer as Canis dingo . In 1999,
7140-614: The Fortescue River region observed that cattle defend their calves by circling around the calves or aggressively charging dingoes. In one study of 26 approaches, 24 were by more than one dingo and only four resulted in calves being killed. Dingoes often revisited carcasses. They did not touch fresh cattle carcasses until these were largely skin and bone, and even when these were plentiful, they still preferred to hunt kangaroos. Of 68 chases of sheep, 26 sheep were seriously injured, but only eight were killed. The dingoes could outrun
7259-530: The ICZN for animals and the ICN for plants, do not make rules for defining the boundaries of the species. Research can change the boundaries, also known as circumscription, based on new evidence. Species may then need to be distinguished by the boundary definitions used, and in such cases the names may be qualified with sensu stricto ("in the narrow sense") to denote usage in the exact meaning given by an author such as
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#17327901010797378-649: The IUCN Red List . In 2020, the American Society of Mammalogists considered the dingo a synonym of the domestic dog. However, 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. In 2024, a study found that the Dingo and New Guinea singing dog show 5.5% genome introgression from the ancestor of
7497-927: 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 Tianluoshan archaeological site , Zhejiang province dates to 7,000 YBP (years before present) and is 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 YBP. The oldest reliable date for dog remains found in mainland Southeast Asia
7616-423: The bark of a dingo is short and monosyllabic, and is rarely used. Barking was observed to make up only 5% of vocalisations . Dog barking has always been distinct from wolf barking. Australian dingoes bark mainly in swooshing noises or in a mixture of atonal and tonal sounds. In addition, barking is almost exclusively used for giving warnings. Warn-barking in a homotypical sequence and a kind of "warn-howling" in
7735-399: The fly agaric . Natural hybridisation presents a challenge to the concept of a reproductively isolated species, as fertile hybrids permit gene flow between two populations. For example, the carrion crow Corvus corone and the hooded crow Corvus cornix appear and are classified as separate species, yet they can hybridise where their geographical ranges overlap. A ring species is
7854-507: The jaguar ( Panthera onca ) of Latin America or the leopard ( Panthera pardus ) of Africa and Asia. In contrast, the scientific names of species are chosen to be unique and universal (except for some inter-code homonyms ); they are in two parts used together : the genus as in Puma , and the specific epithet as in concolor . A species is given a taxonomic name when a type specimen
7973-406: The "cynical species concept", and arguing that far from being cynical, it usefully leads to an empirical taxonomy for any given group, based on taxonomists' experience. Other biologists have gone further and argued that we should abandon species entirely, and refer to the "Least Inclusive Taxonomic Units" (LITUs), a view that would be coherent with current evolutionary theory. The species concept
8092-599: The Mandura Caves on the Nullarbor Plain , south-eastern Western Australia ; 3,320 YBP from Woombah Midden near Woombah, New South Wales ; and 3,170 YBP from Fromme's Landing on the Murray River near Mannum , South Australia . 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. Excavations later indicated that
8211-458: The New Guinea singing dog. 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 YBP , and reached Australia 8,300 YBP ; however, the human population which brought them remains unknown. The dingo's genome indicates that it
8330-454: The World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference is a standard reference work in mammalogy giving descriptions and bibliographic data for the known species of mammals . It is now in its third edition, published in late 2005, which was edited by Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder. An online version is hosted by Bucknell University , from which the names of the species can be downloaded as
8449-405: The abbreviation "sp." in the singular or "spp." (standing for species pluralis , Latin for "multiple species") in the plural in place of the specific name or epithet (e.g. Canis sp.). This commonly occurs when authors are confident that some individuals belong to a particular genus but are not sure to which exact species they belong, as is common in paleontology . Authors may also use "spp." as
8568-570: The amount of hybridisation is insufficient to completely mix their respective gene pools . A further development of the recognition concept is provided by the biosemiotic concept of species. In microbiology , genes can move freely even between distantly related bacteria, possibly extending to the whole bacterial domain. As a rule of thumb, microbiologists have assumed that members of Bacteria or Archaea with 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences more similar than 97% to each other need to be checked by DNA–DNA hybridisation to decide if they belong to
8687-474: The biological species concept, "the several versions" of the phylogenetic species concept, and the idea that species are of the same kind as higher taxa are not suitable for biodiversity studies (with the intention of estimating the number of species accurately). They further suggested that the concept works for both asexual and sexually-reproducing species. A version of the concept is Kevin de Queiroz 's "General Lineage Concept of Species". An ecological species
8806-505: The biological species concept, a cladistic species does not rely on reproductive isolation – its criteria are independent of processes that are integral in other concepts. Therefore, it applies to asexual lineages. However, it does not always provide clear cut and intuitively satisfying boundaries between taxa, and may require multiple sources of evidence, such as more than one polymorphic locus, to give plausible results. An evolutionary species, suggested by George Gaylord Simpson in 1951,
8925-461: The body. The dingo is closely related to the New Guinea singing dog : their lineage split early from the lineage that led to today's domestic dogs, and can be traced back through Maritime Southeast Asia to Asia. The oldest remains of dingoes in Australia are around 3,500 years old. A dingo pack usually consists of a mated pair, their offspring from the current year, and sometimes offspring from
9044-424: The captive male 18.9 kg (42 lb) and the female 16.2 kg (36 lb). The average wild dingo male length is 125 cm (49 in) and the female 122 cm (48 in), compared with the captive male 136 cm (54 in) and the female 133 cm (52 in). The average wild dingo male stands at the shoulder height of 59 cm (23 in) and the female 56 cm (22 in), compared with
9163-475: The captive male 56 cm (22 in) and the female 53 cm (21 in). Dingoes rarely carry excess fat and the wild ones display exposed ribs. Dingoes from northern and northwestern Australia are often larger than those found in central and southern Australia. The dingo is similar to the New Guinea singing dog in morphology apart from the dingo's greater height at the withers . The average dingo can reach speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour. Compared with
9282-552: The coastal wetlands of northern Australia, dingoes depend on magpie geese for a large part of their diet and a lone dingo sometimes distracts these while a white-breasted sea eagle makes a kill that is too heavy for it to carry off, with the dingo then driving the sea eagle away. They also scavenge on prey dropped from the nesting platforms of sea eagles. Lone dingoes may hunt small rodents and grasshoppers in grass by using their senses of smell and hearing, then pouncing on them with their forepaws. Dingoes and their hybrids co-exist with
9401-433: The concept of a chronospecies can be applied. During anagenesis (evolution, not necessarily involving branching), some palaeontologists seek to identify a sequence of species, each one derived from the phyletically extinct one before through continuous, slow and more or less uniform change. In such a time sequence, some palaeontologists assess how much change is required for a morphologically distinct form to be considered
9520-424: The diet on the lower slopes and wombat on the higher slopes. Possums are commonly eaten here when found on the ground. In coastal regions, dingoes patrol the beaches for washed-up fish, seals , penguins , and other birds. Dingoes drink about a litre of water each day in the summer and half a litre in winter. In arid regions during the winter, dingoes may live from the liquid in the bodies of their prey , as long as
9639-491: The diet, except for long-haired rats that form occasional plagues. In the Fortescue River region, the large red kangaroo and common wallaroo dominate the diet, as few smaller mammals are found in this area. On the Nullarbor Plain, rabbits and red kangaroos dominate the diet, and twice as much rabbit is eaten as red kangaroo. In the temperate mountains of eastern Australia, swamp wallaby and red-necked wallaby dominate
9758-497: The dingo skulls from Southeastern Australia (Alpine dingoes) being quite distinct from the other ecotypes. And genomic and mitochondrial DNA sequencing demonstrating at least 2 dingo mtDNA haplotypes colonised Australia. In 2020, a genetic study found that the New Guinea Highland wild dogs were genetically basal to the dingo and the New Guinea singing dog, and therefore the potential originator of both. The dingo
9877-586: The dog, the dingo is able to rotate its wrists and can turn doorknobs or raise latches in order to escape confinement. Dingo shoulder joints are unusually flexible, and they can climb fences, cliffs, trees, and rocks. These adaptations help dingoes climbing in difficult terrain, where they prefer high vantage points. A similar adaptation can be found in the Norwegian Lundehund , which was developed on isolated Norwegian islands to hunt in cliff and rocky areas. Wolves do not have this ability. Compared with
9996-409: The domestic dog by its larger palatal width, longer rostrum , shorter skull height, and wider sagittal crest. However, this was rebutted with the figures falling within the wider range of the domestic dog and that each dog breed differs from the others in skull measurements. Based on a comparison with the remains of a dingo found at Fromme's Landing, the dingo's skull and skeleton have not changed over
10115-590: The end of the last glacial maximum and the associated rise in sea levels, Tasmania became separated from the Australian mainland 12,000 YBP, and New Guinea 6,500–8,500 YBP by the inundation of the Sahul Shelf . Fossil remains in Australia date to around 3,500 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 Island Southeast Asia even at
10234-435: The evidence to support hypotheses about evolutionarily divergent lineages that have maintained their hereditary integrity through time and space. Molecular markers may be used to determine diagnostic genetic differences in the nuclear or mitochondrial DNA of various species. For example, in a study done on fungi , studying the nucleotide characters using cladistic species produced the most accurate results in recognising
10353-629: The federal and state governments. These examined a total of 13,000 stomach contents and fecal samples. For the fecal samples, determining the matching tracks of foxes and feral cats was possible without including these samples in the study, but in distinguishing between the tracks left by dingoes and those of dingo hybrids or feral dogs was impossible. The study found that these canines prey on 177 species represented by 72.3% mammals (71 species), 18.8% birds (53 species), 3.3% vegetation (seeds), 1.8% reptiles (23 species), and 3.8% insects, fish, crabs, and frogs (28 species). The relative proportions of prey are much
10472-635: The fossil record of Tasmania, so they apparently arrived in Australia after Tasmania had separated from the mainland due to rising sea levels. The introduction of agriculture reduced dingo distribution, and by the early 1900s, large barrier fences, including the Dingo Fence , excluded them from the sheep-grazing areas. Land clearance, poisoning, and trapping caused the extinction of the dingo and hybrids from most of their former range in southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. Today, they are absent from most of New South Wales, Victoria,
10591-405: The levels had been disturbed, and the dingo remains "probably moved to an earlier level." 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. However, the timing of these skeletal remains was based on the dating of the sediments in which they were discovered, and not
10710-417: The lowest sea level of the last glacial maximum, a journey of at least 50 kilometres (31 mi) over open sea between ancient Sunda and Sahul was necessary, so they must have accompanied humans on boats. Whole genome sequencing indicates that, while dogs are a genetically divergent subspecies of the grey wolf, the dog is not a descendant of the extant grey wolf. Rather, these are sister taxa which share
10829-430: The most commonly killed prey. The main tactic is to sight the kangaroo, bail it up, then kill it. Dingoes typically hunt large kangaroos by having lead dingoes chase the quarry toward the paths of their pack mates, which are skilled at cutting corners in chases. The kangaroo becomes exhausted and is then killed. This same tactic is used by wolves, African wild dogs , and hyenas . Another tactic shared with African wild dogs
10948-724: The native quoll . They also co-occur in the same territory as the introduced European red fox and feral cat , but little is known about the relationships between these three. Dingoes and their hybrids can drive off foxes from sources of water and occasionally eat feral cats. Dingoes can be killed by feral water buffalo and cattle goring and kicking them, from snake bite, and predation on their pups (and occasionally adults) by wedge-tailed eagles . Like all domestic dogs, dingoes tend towards phonetic communication. However, in contrast to domestic dogs, dingoes howl and whimper more, and bark less. Eight sound classes with 19 sound types have been identified. Compared to most domestic dogs,
11067-451: The northwest. The dingo and New Guinea singing dog lineage can be traced back from Island Southeast Asia to Mainland Southeast Asia. Gene flow from the genetically divergent Tibetan wolf forms 2% of the dingo's genome, which likely represents ancient admixture in eastern Eurasia. By the close of the last ice age 11,700 years ago, five ancestral dog lineages had diversified from each other, with one of these being represented today by
11186-663: The number of prey is sufficient. In arid Central Australia, weaned pups draw most of their water from their food. There, regurgitation of water by the females for the pups was observed. During lactation, captive females have no higher need of water than usual, since they consume the urine and feces of the pups, thus recycling the water and keeping the den clean. Tracked dingoes in the Strzelecki Desert regularly visited water-points every 3–5 days, with two dingoes surviving 22 days without water during both winter and summer. Dingoes, dingo hybrids, and feral dogs usually attack from
11305-483: The numerous fungi species of all the concepts studied. Versions of the phylogenetic species concept that emphasise monophyly or diagnosability may lead to splitting of existing species, for example in Bovidae , by recognising old subspecies as species, despite the fact that there are no reproductive barriers, and populations may intergrade morphologically. Others have called this approach taxonomic inflation , diluting
11424-593: The paper is accepted for publication. The type material is usually held in a permanent repository, often the research collection of a major museum or university, that allows independent verification and the means to compare specimens. Describers of new species are asked to choose names that, in the words of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , are "appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence". Books and articles sometimes intentionally do not identify species fully, using
11543-489: The past 3,000 years. Compared to the wolf, the dingo possesses a paedomorphic cranium similar to domestic dogs. However, the dingo has a larger brain size compared to dogs of the same body weight, with the dingo being more comparable with the wolf than dogs are. In this respect, the dingo resembles two similar mesopredators , the dhole and the coyote. The eyes are triangular (or almond-shaped) and are hazel to dark in colour with dark rims. The ears are erect and occur high on
11662-674: The person who named the species, while the antonym sensu lato ("in the broad sense") denotes a wider usage, for instance including other subspecies. Other abbreviations such as "auct." ("author"), and qualifiers such as "non" ("not") may be used to further clarify the sense in which the specified authors delineated or described the species. Species are subject to change, whether by evolving into new species, exchanging genes with other species, merging with other species or by becoming extinct. The evolutionary process by which biological populations of sexually-reproducing organisms evolve to become distinct or reproductively isolated as species
11781-722: The previous year. The name "dingo" comes from the Dharug language used by the Indigenous Australians of the Sydney area. The first British colonists to arrive in Australia in 1788 established a settlement at Port Jackson and noted "dingoes" living with indigenous Australians. The name was first recorded in 1789 by Watkin Tench in his Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay : The only domestic animal they have
11900-449: The rear as they pursue their prey. They kill their prey by biting the throat, which damages the trachea and the major blood vessels of the neck. The size of the hunting pack is determined by the type of prey targeted, with large packs formed to help hunt large prey. Large prey can include kangaroos, cattle, water buffalo, and feral horses. Dingoes will assess and target prey based on the prey's ability to inflict damage. Large kangaroos are
12019-671: 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. The dingo is regarded as a feral dog because it descended from domesticated ancestors. 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
12138-485: The relative proportions of the size of prey mammals varied across regions. In the tropical coast region of northern Australia, agile wallabies, dusky rats, and magpie geese formed 80% of the diet. In Central Australia, the rabbit has become a substitute for native mammals, and during droughts, cattle carcasses provide most of the diet. On the Barkly Tableland , no rabbits occur nor does any native species dominate
12257-409: The result is a sandy colour. The coat is not oily, nor does it have a dog-like odour. The dingo has a single coat in the tropical north of Australia and a double thick coat in the cold mountains of the south, the undercoat being a wolf-grey colour. Patchy and brindle coat colours can be found in dingoes with no dog ancestry and these colours are less common in dingoes of mixed ancestry. The dingo's tail
12376-487: The result of misclassification leading to questions on whether there really are any ring species. The commonly used names for kinds of organisms are often ambiguous: "cat" could mean the domestic cat, Felis catus , or the cat family, Felidae . Another problem with common names is that they often vary from place to place, so that puma, cougar, catamount, panther, painter and mountain lion all mean Puma concolor in various parts of America, while "panther" may also mean
12495-586: The ring. Ring species thus present a difficulty for any species concept that relies on reproductive isolation. However, ring species are at best rare. Proposed examples include the herring gull – lesser black-backed gull complex around the North pole, the Ensatina eschscholtzii group of 19 populations of salamanders in America, and the greenish warbler in Asia, but many so-called ring species have turned out to be
12614-496: The same across Australia, apart from more birds being eaten in the north and south-east coastal regions, and more lizards in Central Australia. Some 80% of the diet consisted of 10 species: red kangaroo , swamp wallaby , cattle, dusky rat , magpie goose , common brushtail possum , long-haired rat , agile wallaby , European rabbit , and common wombat . Of the mammals eaten, 20% could be regarded as large. However,
12733-508: The same species. This concept was narrowed in 2006 to a similarity of 98.7%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) method quantifies genetic distance between entire genomes , using regions of about 10,000 base pairs . With enough data from genomes of one genus, algorithms can be used to categorize species, as for Pseudomonas avellanae in 2013, and for all sequenced bacteria and archaea since 2020. Observed ANI values among sequences appear to have an "ANI gap" at 85–95%, suggesting that
12852-529: The same species. When two species names are discovered to apply to the same species, the older species name is given priority and usually retained, and the newer name considered as a junior synonym, a process called synonymy . Dividing a taxon into multiple, often new, taxa is called splitting . Taxonomists are often referred to as "lumpers" or "splitters" by their colleagues, depending on their personal approach to recognising differences or commonalities between organisms. The circumscription of taxa, considered
12971-740: The sheep and the sheep were defenceless. However, the dingoes in general appeared not to be motivated to kill sheep, and in many cases just loped alongside the sheep before veering off to chase another sheep. For those that did kill and consume sheep, a large quantity of kangaroo was still in their diet, indicating once again a preference for kangaroo. Lone dingoes can run down a rabbit, but are more successful by targeting kits near rabbit warrens. Dingoes take nestling birds, in addition to birds that are moulting and therefore cannot fly. Predators often use highly intelligent hunting techniques. Dingoes on Fraser Island have been observed using waves to entrap, tire, and help drown an adult swamp wallaby and an echidna. In
13090-413: The skull of the dog, the dingo possesses a longer muzzle , longer carnassial teeth, longer and more slender canine teeth , larger auditory bullae , a flatter cranium with a larger sagittal crest , and larger nuchal lines . In 2014, a study was conducted on pre-20th century dingo specimens that are unlikely to have been influenced by later hybridisation. The dingo skull was found to differ relative to
13209-406: The skull. The dingo's three main coat colours are described as being light ginger (or tan), black and tan, and creamy white. The ginger colour ranges from a deep rust to a pale cream and can be found in 74% of dingoes. Often, small white markings are seen on the tip of the tail, the feet, and the chest, but with no large white patches. Some do not exhibit white tips. The black and tan dingoes possess
13328-507: The southeastern third of South Australia, and the southwestern tip of Western Australia. They are sparse in the eastern half of Western Australia and the adjoining areas of the Northern Territory and South Australia. They are regarded as common across the remainder of the continent. The dingo could be considered an ecotype or an ecospecies that has adapted to Australia's unique environment. The dingo's present distribution covers
13447-456: The species concept and making taxonomy unstable. Yet others defend this approach, considering "taxonomic inflation" pejorative and labelling the opposing view as "taxonomic conservatism"; claiming it is politically expedient to split species and recognise smaller populations at the species level, because this means they can more easily be included as endangered in the IUCN red list and can attract conservation legislation and funding. Unlike
13566-594: The specimens themselves. 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 YBP from Thylacine Hole, 110 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
13685-485: The theoretical difficulties. If species were fixed and clearly distinct from one another, there would be no problem, but evolutionary processes cause species to change. This obliges taxonomists to decide, for example, when enough change has occurred to declare that a lineage should be divided into multiple chronospecies , or when populations have diverged to have enough distinct character states to be described as cladistic species. Species and higher taxa were seen from
13804-877: The time of Aristotle until the 18th century as categories that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being . In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time. Charles Darwin 's 1859 book On the Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection . That understanding was greatly extended in the 20th century through genetics and population ecology . Genetic variability arises from mutations and recombination , while organisms themselves are mobile, leading to geographical isolation and genetic drift with varying selection pressures . Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal gene transfer ; new species can arise rapidly through hybridisation and polyploidy ; and species may become extinct for
13923-540: The wild. It is difficult to define a species in a way that applies to all organisms. The debate about species concepts is called the species problem. The problem was recognised even in 1859, when Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species : I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and varieties. He went on to write: No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of
14042-565: Was not clarified from Meyer's original description, which translated from the German language reads: 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. The earliest known dingo remains, found in Western Australia, date to 3,450 years ago. Based on
14161-477: Was once a domestic dog which commenced a process of feralisation since its arrival 8,300 years ago, with the new environment leading to changes in those genomic regions which regulate metabolism, neurodevelopment, and reproduction. 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 years ago, followed by
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