Canis lupus dingo is a taxonomic rank that includes both the dingo that is native to Australia and the New Guinea singing dog that is native to the New Guinea Highlands. It also includes some extinct dogs that were once found in coastal Papua New Guinea and the island of Java in the Indonesian Archipelago.
It is included in the taxonomic treatment presented in the third edition of Mammal Species of the World (2005). In this treatment, it is a subspecies of Canis lupus (the wolf), with the domestic dog treated as a different wolf subspecies. However, other treatments consider the dog as a full species, with the dingo and its relatives either as a subspecies of the dog (as Canis familiaris dingo), a species in its own right (Canis dingo), or simply as an unnamed variant or genetic clade within the larger population of dogs (thus, Canis familiaris, not further differentiated).
The genetic evidence indicates that the dingo clade originated from East Asian domestic dogs and was introduced through the Malay Archipelago into Australia, with a common ancestry between the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. The New Guinea singing dog is genetically closer to those dingoes that live in southeastern Australia than to those that live in the northwest.
Taxonomic debate – the domestic dog, dingo, and New Guinea singing dog
Nomenclature Zoological nomenclature is a system of naming animals. In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published in his Systema Naturae the two-word naming of species (binomial nomenclature). Canis is the Latin word meaning "dog", and under this genus he listed the domestic dog, grey wolf and the golden jackal. He classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris, and on the next page he classified the grey wolf as Canis lupus. Linnaeus considered the dog to be a separate species from the wolf because of its upturning tail (cauda recurvata), which is not found in any other canid.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) advises on the "correct use of the scientific names of animals". The ICZN has entered into its official list: Genus Canis in 1926, Canis familiaris as the type species for genus Canis in 1955, and Canis dingo in 1957. These names (such as Canis familiaris and Canis dingo) are then available for use as the correct names for the taxa in question by taxonomists who treat the entities concerned as distinct taxonomic units at species level, rather than as (for example) subtaxa of other species. According to the Principle of Coordination, the same epithets can also be applied at subspecies level, i.e. as the third name in a trinomial name, should the taxonomic treatment being followed prefer such an arrangement.
Taxonomy Taxonomy classifies organisms together which possess common characteristics. Nomenclature does not determine the rank to be accorded to any assemblage of animals but only whether or not a particular name is "available" for use, once a particular taxonomic decision has been made. Therefore, zoologists are free to propose which group of animals with similar characteristics that a taxon might belong to. In 1978, a review to reduce the number species listed under genus Canis proposed that "Canis dingo is now generally regarded as a distinctive feral domestic dog. Canis familiaris is used for domestic dogs, although taxonomically it should probably be synonymous with Canis lupus." In 1982, the first edition of Mammal Species of the World included a note under Canis lupus with the comment: "Probably ancestor of and conspecific with the domestic dog, familiaris. Canis familiaris has page priority over Canis lupus" [in fact this is irrelevant: page priority is not a concept that exists any more in zoological nomenclature] "but both were published simultaneously in Linnaeus (1758), and Canis lupus has been universally used for this species".
In 1999, a study of the maternal lineage through the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as a genetic marker indicated that the domestic dog may have originated from the grey wolf, with the dingo and New Guinea singing dog breeds having developed at a time when human populations were more isolated from each other. In 2003, the ICZN ruled in its Opinion 2027 that the "name of a wild species ... is not invalid by virtue of being predated by the name based on a domestic form". Additionally, the ICZN placed the taxon lupus as a conserved name on the official list under this opinion, meaning that both this epithet and familiaris are available names (one does not override the other) in the event that a taxonomist wishes to differentiate between the two taxa at species level.
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]", with the comment "Includes the domestic dog as a subspecies, with the dingo provisionally separate – artificial variants created by domestication and selective breeding. Although this may stretch the subspecies concept, it retains the correct allocation of synonyms." Wozencraft included hallstromi – the New Guinea singing dog – as a taxonomic synonym for the dingo. Wozencraft referred to the mtDNA study as one of the guides in forming his decision. Mammalogists have noted the inclusion of familiaris and dingo together under the "domestic dog" clade, and they debate this classification.
Taxonomic debate This classification by Wozencraft is debated among zoologists. Mathew Crowther, Stephen Jackson, and Colin Groves disagree with Wozencraft and argue that based on ICZN Opinion 2027, a domestic animal cannot be a subspecies. Crowther, Juliet Clutton-Brock and others argue that because the dingo differs from wolves by behaviour, morphology, and because the dingo and dog do not fall genetically within the extant wolf clade, that the dingo should be considered the distinct taxon Canis dingo Meyer 1793. Janice Koler-Matznick and others believe that the New Guinea singing dog Canis hallstromi Troughton 1957 should not be classified under Canis lupus dingo on the grounds that it has behavioural, morphological and molecular characteristics that are distinct from the wolf. Jackson and Groves do not regard the dog Canis familiaris as a taxonomic synonym for (or subspecies of) the wolf Canis lupus, but instead rank them both equally, as distinct species. They also disagree with Crowther, based on the overlap between dogs and dingoes in their morphology, in their ability to easily hybridise with each other, and that they show the signs of domestication by both having a cranium of smaller capacity than their progenitor, the wolf. Given that Canis familiaris Linnaeus 1758 has date priority over Canis dingo Meyer 1793, they regard the dingo as a junior taxonomic synonym for the dog Canis familiaris (i.e. being included within the circumscription of the latter species). Further, the dingo is regarded as a feral dog because it descended from domesticated ancestors. Gheorghe Benga and others support the dingo as a subspecies of the dog as Canis familiaris dingo Meyer 1793, with the domestic dog being the subspecies Canis familiaris familiaris.
In 2008, the palaeontologists Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford propose that the dog could be taxonomically classified as Canis lupus familiaris under the Biological Species Concept because the dog can interbreed with the grey wolf Canis lupus, and classified as Canis familiaris under the Evolutionary Species Concept because the dog has commenced down a separate evolutionary pathway to the grey wolf.
In 2015, the Taxonomy of Australian Mammals classed the dingo as Canis familiaris. In 2017, a review of the latest scientific information proposes that the dingo and New Guinea singing dog are both types of the domestic dog Canis familiaris. The Australian Government's Australian Faunal Directory lists the dingo under Canis familiaris. In 2018, the taxonomic reference Walker's Mammals of the World recognised the dingo as Canis familiaris dingo. The Australian National Kennel Council recognises a dingo breed standard within its Hounds group.
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, and therefore should not be assessed for the IUCN Red List.Álvares, F., Bogdanowicz, W., Campbell, L. A. D., Hatlauf, J., Godinho, R., Jhala, Y. V., Werhahn, G. (2019). Old World Canis spp. With taxonomic ambiguity: Workshop conclusions and recommendations. Vairão, Portugal: CIBIO. Canid Biology & Conservation.
In 2020, the American Society of Mammalogists considered the dingo a synonym of the domestic dog.
Genomic evidence The sequencing of ancient dog genomes indicates that dogs share a common ancestry and descended from an ancient, now-extinct wolf population – or closely related wolf populations – which was distinct from the modern wolf lineage. By the close of the last ice age 11,700 years ago, five ancestral lineages had diversified from each other and were expressed in ancient dog samples found in Karelia (10,900 ), Lake Baikal (7,000 ), the Levant (7,000 ), ancient America (4,000 YBP), and in the New Guinea singing dog (present day). The dingo is a basal member of the domestic dog clade. "The term basal taxon refers to a lineage that diverges early in the history of the group and lies on a branch that originates near the common ancestor of the group." Mitochondrial genome sequences indicates 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 the northwest.
Taxonomic synonyms
A taxonomic synonym is a name that applies to a taxon that now goes by a different name. In 2005, W. Christopher Wozencraft in the third edition of Mammal Species of the World listed under the wolf Canis lupus the subspecies dingo along with its proposed taxonomic synonyms:
dingo Meyer, 1793 [domestic dog]; antarticus Kerr, 1792 [suppressed, ICZN, O.451]; australasiae Desmarest, 1820; australiae Gray, 1826; dingoides Matschie, 1915; macdonnellensis Matschie, 1915; novaehollandiae Voigt, 1831; papuensis Ramsay, 1879; tenggerana Kohlbrugge, 1896; hallstromi Troughton, 1957; harappensis Prashad, 1936.
These are all equivalent to (or included within) the subspecies Canis lupus dingo according to this treatment. Of the 10 available (not suppressed) proposed names, the majority refer to the Australian dingo, one to the New Guinea singing dog, and three refer to extinct dogs that were once found in the Indonesian archipelago and Southern Asia.
Canis dingo, Australian dingo For the taxon Canis dingo (or Canis lupus dingo, or Canis familiaris dingo, or simply included within Canis familiaris without further differentiation, according to different authorities), the following taxa are regarded as its taxonomic synonyms located in Australia: antarticus [suppressed], Canis familiaris australasiae, Canis australiae, Canis dingoides, Canis macdonnellensis, Canis familiaris novaehollandiae.
In 1768, James Cook took command of a scientific voyage of discovery from Britain to New Holland, which was the name for Australia at that time. In 1770, his ship HMS Endeavour arrived in Botany Bay, which is now part of Sydney. The mission made notes and collected specimens for taking back to Britain. On return to Britain, Joseph Banks commissioned George Stubbs to produce paintings based on his observations, one of which was the "Portrait of a Large Dog from New Holland" completed in 1772.