Alternatively, based on the close similarity in skeletal anatomy to Indian pariah dogs and wolves, an introduction from India by maritime peoples has been proposed ( 5). East Asia has been suggested as the origin based on the relative proximity to Australia and the relatively easy access via the islands of the Southeast Asian archipelago ( 3). There are two main hypotheses proposed for the geographic origin of the dingo ancestors. The dingo ancestors were therefore most probably introduced to Australia with the aid of humans traveling in boats. To reach Australia from the Asian mainland through the Southeast Asian archipelago, regardless of route, a journey of at least 50 km over open sea was necessary at some point even at low sea level of glacial maxima, and there is no example of any other large terrestrial animal that has made this journey unaided ( 1, 7). Archaeological data therefore indicates the arrival of dingoes to Australia some time between 3,500 and 12,000 yr ago. Finds are absent in Tasmania, which was separated from Australia by the rise of the sea level в‰€12,000 yr ago ( 2). In a sparse archaeological record, the earliest substantiated evidence of dingoes is from в‰€3,500 yr ago ( 2, 6). They were introduced from a small population of dogs, possibly at a single occasion, and have since lived isolated from other dog populations. From these results a detailed scenario of the origin and history of the dingo can be derived: dingoes have an origin from domesticated dogs coming from East Asia, possibly in connection with the Austronesian expansion into Island Southeast Asia. The mean genetic distance to A29 among the dingo mtDNA sequences indicates an origin в‰€5,000 years ago. This mtDNA type, which was present in >50% of the dingoes, was found also among domestic dogs, but only in dogs from East Asia and Arctic America, whereas 18 of the 19 other types were unique to dingoes. We found that all mtDNA sequences among dingoes were either identical to or differing by a single substitution from a single mtDNA type, A29. To determine the origin and time of arrival to Australia of the dingo, 582 bp of the mtDNA control region were analyzed in 211 Australian dingoes sampled in all states of Australia, 676 dogs from all continents, and 38 Eurasian wolves, and 263 bp were analyzed in 19 pre-European archaeological dog samples from Polynesia.

Wild dogs in america