TINY snippets of DNA from dingoes and domestic dogs reveal that Australia's native dog arrived thousands of years earlier than previously believed -- at the end of a long journey from China.
While dingoes don't appear in the archeological record until roughly 3500 years ago, the genetic evidence suggests the native dog arrived between 4600 and 18,300 years ago.
According to international geneticists, including Alan Wilton of the University of NSW and Peter Savolainen of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, their analysis also reveals the routes dingoes, New Guinea singing dogs (NGSDs) and Polynesian dogs took to their ultimate destinations.
"This gives a clear indication that Polynesian dogs, as well as dingoes and NGSDs, trace their ancestry back to south China through mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesia," they reported yesterday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Previously, it had been believed that dingoes and other dogs spread to Southeast Asia, Oceania and Australia from Taiwan and The Philippines, a route highly dependent on boats.
"Clearly, the land route is much more feasible for dogs than the sea route," said Dr Wilton.
Dr Wilton and Assistant Professor Savolainen built on a 2004 study, conducted with another team, that found dingoes were introduced to Australia about 5000 years ago.
"I told Alan that I didn't agree with that," said Lyn Watson, co-founder of the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre near Melbourne.
"But the new paper makes perfect sense."
" In my long experience with dogs and dingoes they are so physiologically and behaviourally different, dingoes must have been separated from domestic dogs for many thousands of years."
While Australian National University archeologist Peter Bellwood agreed a "Chinese ultimate origin is not in dispute", he claimed genetic-based dating techniques were unreliable.
"And anyway, dogs were not present in (the archeological record) in Indonesia or Australia before 3500 years before present, so obviously the dates are much too old," he said.
But Dr Wilton and Professor Savolainen stand by their team's analysis of DNA from 674 dogs, 232 dingoes and three NGSDs.
Author: Leigh Dayton | Source: The Australian [September 08, 2011]
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| Lyn Watson of the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre near Melbourne with three-month-old dingo pups [Credit: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian] |
According to international geneticists, including Alan Wilton of the University of NSW and Peter Savolainen of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, their analysis also reveals the routes dingoes, New Guinea singing dogs (NGSDs) and Polynesian dogs took to their ultimate destinations.
"This gives a clear indication that Polynesian dogs, as well as dingoes and NGSDs, trace their ancestry back to south China through mainland Southeast Asia and Indonesia," they reported yesterday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Previously, it had been believed that dingoes and other dogs spread to Southeast Asia, Oceania and Australia from Taiwan and The Philippines, a route highly dependent on boats.
"Clearly, the land route is much more feasible for dogs than the sea route," said Dr Wilton.
Dr Wilton and Assistant Professor Savolainen built on a 2004 study, conducted with another team, that found dingoes were introduced to Australia about 5000 years ago.
"I told Alan that I didn't agree with that," said Lyn Watson, co-founder of the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre near Melbourne.
"But the new paper makes perfect sense."
" In my long experience with dogs and dingoes they are so physiologically and behaviourally different, dingoes must have been separated from domestic dogs for many thousands of years."
While Australian National University archeologist Peter Bellwood agreed a "Chinese ultimate origin is not in dispute", he claimed genetic-based dating techniques were unreliable.
"And anyway, dogs were not present in (the archeological record) in Indonesia or Australia before 3500 years before present, so obviously the dates are much too old," he said.
But Dr Wilton and Professor Savolainen stand by their team's analysis of DNA from 674 dogs, 232 dingoes and three NGSDs.
Author: Leigh Dayton | Source: The Australian [September 08, 2011]