The impacts of European arrival on Australian dingoes

The European colonial expansion had dramatic consequences on both Indigenous Peoples and local fauna. In Australia, the degree to which the arrival of Europeans and their dogs impacted the ecology and ancestry of dingoes is contentious. To test for gene flow with European dogs, we sequenced genomes of 18 ancient Australian dingoes from the Nullarbor Plain, two early 20th-century New Guinean dingoes, a mid-19th-century kangaroo hound, and 33 contemporary dingoes from across Australia. To quantify dietary shifts after the arrival of the First Fleet (AD1788), we generated stable isotopic (<i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C, <i>δ</i><sup>15</sup>N) data for 55 directly dated ancient Australian dingoes spanning the last ~2,300 y. We show that the diet of Nullarbor Plain dingoes shifted soon after European arrival, possibly due to shifts in prey abundance. Our genomic analyses demonstrated that pre-European dingoes were more inbred than most contemporary dog breeds, possibly as a result of population bottlenecks. We also showed that many dingoes, particularly those from Southeast Australia, experienced admixture with European dogs. Although we detected European ancestry dating to the early 18th-century, the majority of gene flow events coincided with the initiation of landscape-scale population control in the 1960s. Furthermore, some European dog alleles may have provided adaptive benefits to dingoes and alleviated inbreeding depression. Despite the existence of gene flow with European dogs, dingoes have maintained their distinctiveness. This suggests that management strategies should prioritize maintenance of substantial population sizes across Australia to both facilitate effective purifying and positive selection on introgressed alleles, and mitigate inbreeding.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2025-11-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2421749122
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.63
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article

The impacts of European arrival on Australian dingoes

Katia Bougiouri, Elizabeth H. Reed, Tatiana R. Feuerborn, Mike Letnic et al.
2 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
3.63
article

The impacts of European arrival on Australian dingoes

Katia Bougiouri, Elizabeth H. Reed, Tatiana R. Feuerborn, Mike Letnic, Amy Styring, Kristina Tabbada, Greger Larson, Lachie Scarsbrook, Peter Ditchfıeld, Joel M. Alves, Mathew S. Crowther, Daniel J. Lawson, Laurent Frantz, Alex C. Harris, Loukas Koungoulos, Olaf Thalmann, Elaine A. Ostrander, Zehui Zhang, Melanie A. Fillios, Allowen Evin, Richard Sabin, Heidi G. Parker, Kylie M. Cairns, Kieren J. Mitchell, Anna Eugenia Wood, Michael Curry, Sofia Granja-Martins
article en
2 citations

Abstract

The European colonial expansion had dramatic consequences on both Indigenous Peoples and local fauna. In Australia, the degree to which the arrival of Europeans and their dogs impacted the ecology and ancestry of dingoes is contentious. To test for gene flow with European dogs, we sequenced genomes of 18 ancient Australian dingoes from the Nullarbor Plain, two early 20th-century New Guinean dingoes, a mid-19th-century kangaroo hound, and 33 contemporary dingoes from across Australia. To quantify dietary shifts after the arrival of the First Fleet (AD1788), we generated stable isotopic (<i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C, <i>δ</i><sup>15</sup>N) data for 55 directly dated ancient Australian dingoes spanning the last ~2,300 y. We show that the diet of Nullarbor Plain dingoes shifted soon after European arrival, possibly due to shifts in prey abundance. Our genomic analyses demonstrated that pre-European dingoes were more inbred than most contemporary dog breeds, possibly as a result of population bottlenecks. We also showed that many dingoes, particularly those from Southeast Australia, experienced admixture with European dogs. Although we detected European ancestry dating to the early 18th-century, the majority of gene flow events coincided with the initiation of landscape-scale population control in the 1960s. Furthermore, some European dog alleles may have provided adaptive benefits to dingoes and alleviated inbreeding depression. Despite the existence of gene flow with European dogs, dingoes have maintained their distinctiveness. This suggests that management strategies should prioritize maintenance of substantial population sizes across Australia to both facilitate effective purifying and positive selection on introgressed alleles, and mitigate inbreeding.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 122(48)
Australian National University (AU), University of Copenhagen (DK), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), The University of Sydney (AU), National Institutes of Health (US), Carnegie Museum of Natural History (US), Australian Research Council (AU), Queen Mary University of London (GB), Universidade do Porto (PT), UNSW Sydney (AU), University of Bristol (GB), University of Oxford (GB), National Human Genome Research Institute (US), Fundación Biodiversidad (ES), Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (FR), Oxford Archaeology (GB), Cancer Genetics (United States) (US), Research Network (United States) (US), Department of Archaeology (LK), Environmental Earth Sciences (AU), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), The University of Adelaide (AU), Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (NZ)
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
3.63
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