澳洲野狗与狗杂交产仔的头骨形状不会变化

Australia's largest predator ¹, the dingo, is resistant ² to one of the main threats to its survival as a species -- changes to skull ³ shape brought about by cross breeding (hybridisation) with dogs, research shows. A UNSW study published today in Evolutionary ⁵ Biology has found the dingo skull shape remains ⁶ unchanged by cross breeding, overturning long-held fears that cross breeding may result in the loss of the predator's ecological ⁷ niche ⁸. , ,"We know that cross breeding has an effect on the dingo gene ⁹ 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 Surgical ¹⁰ and Orthopaedic Research Laboratory. , ,"This study has shown us that the dingo skull shape, which in part determines feeding ability, is more dominant ¹¹ 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 ecosystem ¹². , ,The UNSW research team used medical CT (computed tomography) scanners to make 3D models of the skulls ¹³ of dingoes, domestic dogs and hybrids ¹⁴. 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 hybrid ⁴ skulls were indistinguishable from those of the dingo, meaning they could not tell the difference with the naked eye or statistically ¹⁵. , ,Canis dingo was largely isolated ¹⁶ 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 recessive ¹⁷, potentially adverse ¹⁸, traits being fixed ¹⁹ 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.