Dingo Ancestors Arrived Twice

A 2024 ancient-DNA study found that the two main dingo populations, east and west of the Great Dividing Range in Australia, do not share especially close recent ancestry and were already distinct long before European colonization. One explanation is that the ancestors of dingoes may have entered Australia in separate movements, with one wave reaching the west and another reaching New Guinea and the east coast. They may have arrived somewhere between about 3,500 and more than 8,000 years ago.

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