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.

中文翻译：

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老狗，新花样：颅骨形态的 3D 几何分析支持澳大利亚野狗的古老种群亚结构

澳洲野狗是一种在过去 5000 年内引入澳大利亚的野生犬科动物。现有的研究已经确定了澳大利亚大陆上多达三个具有进化意义的、地理上分离的不同种群的野狗。有争议的解释不同程度地援引了古老的种群子结构、古代的单独介绍以及最近家养狗的不同水平。在这里，我对澳洲野狗的形态变异进行了评估，应用 3D 几何形态计量学来比较来自澳大利亚不同地区的个体与澳洲野狗的近亲新几内亚歌唱犬、家犬和野狗杂交种的颅骨形态。来自澳大利亚东南部的野狗在形态上与它们西北部的同种野狗不同，包括沙漠野狗、热带野狗和弗雷泽岛野狗，是新几内亚歌唱犬的中间体。这些结果与遗传种群细分的相似性表明，野狗的形态可能反映了与复杂的史前引入和传播场景相关的古代种群亚结构，而不仅仅是来自家犬的基因渗入。