Australia's largest predator¹, the dingo, is resistant² to one of the main threats to its survival as a species -- changes to skull³ shape brought about by cross breeding (hybridisation) with dogs, research shows. A UNSW study published today in Evolutionary⁵ Biology has found the dingo skull shape remains⁶ unchanged by cross breeding, overturning long-held fears that cross breeding may result in the loss of the predator's ecological⁷ niche⁸. 

 

"We know that cross breeding has an effect on the dingo gene⁹ pool but what we didn't know until now is whether cross breeding changes the dingo skull," said study lead author Dr William Parr, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UNSW Medicine's Surgical¹⁰ and Orthopaedic Research Laboratory. 

 

"This study has shown us that the dingo skull shape, which in part determines feeding ability, is more dominant¹¹ than dog skull shapes," Dr Parr said. 

 

Conservationists and ecologists had worried that any change in the animals' skull shape through hybridisation could alter feeding habits, potentially causing knock-on effects throughout the entire ecosystem¹². 

 

The UNSW research team used medical CT (computed tomography) scanners to make 3D models of the skulls¹³ of dingoes, domestic dogs and hybrids¹⁴. They then used sophisticated 3D shape analyses to determine whether skulls could be correctly assigned to one of the three groups based on their shape. 

 

The researchers found hybrid⁴ skulls were indistinguishable from those of the dingo, meaning they could not tell the difference with the naked eye or statistically¹⁵. 

 

Canis dingo was largely isolated¹⁶ from other canids (dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals) after it was introduced to the Australian continent around 3,000 years ago. But this changed when European settlers arrived with domestic dogs. 

 

The researchers think that the dominance of the dingo skull shape is most likely due to recessive¹⁷, potentially adverse¹⁸, traits being fixed¹⁹ in dogs, with many breeds having narrower gene pools than the dingo. 

 

"This is the result of selective breeding to maintain breed standards, or selecting for useful working traits," Dr Parr said.

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