260 



carnassial teeth. But large though the carnassials are in 

 the Dingo, they do not reach the proportions of the same teeth 

 in the wild northern wolves, for the average for the wolf 

 tooth is 26 mm. ; yet it must be remembered that the wolf 

 skull is a large one, the condylo-basal length being constantly 

 more than 200 mm. 



It may be a mere coincidence that the two Dingos which 

 were reared in captivity (Nos. 6 and 19, in Table I.) happen 

 to have developed relatively smaller teeth than is normal in 

 the race; nevertheless, the fact is suggestive of the manner 

 in which the tooth reduction has come about in the more 

 pampered races of the domestic dog. 



It may, I think, be taken as certain that the Dingo is 

 a domesticated and feral descendant of the true northern 

 wolf, and that among such descendants he shows a primitive 

 retention of his ancestors' great teeth. Physiologically, he 

 has inherited the comparatively inoffensive smell of the wolf, 

 and the habit of silent hunting ; and in both these characters 

 he differs widely from the jackals, the only other members 

 of the restricted genus Gams. Evidence that the Dingo is a 

 true domestic dog is to be found in the variability of his coat 

 colour. Although it is commonly said that a pure-bred Dingo 

 is difficult to find nowadays, proof of this statement must 

 not be deduced from the fact that wild dogs of very varying 

 colour are met with, for, as Mivart has pointed out, the 

 first white men who came in contact with the Dingo remarked 

 that both black dogs and red ones were common. 



[E] Having dealt with the zoological affinities of the 

 Dingo, a more certain basis is provided for discussing the 

 opinions that have been put forward as to the status of the 

 animal in the Australian mammalian fauna : — 



(1) The supposition that the Dingo is indigenous, i.e., 

 that its phylogenetic story was unfolded within the confines 

 of Australia, is absolutely untenable, and should, once and for 

 all, be dismissed from literature having any pretence to scien- 

 tific accuracy. 



How the evolution of a Monodelphian Cynoid could have 

 been accomplished in the absence of any possible ancestral 

 forms, is a point which the advocates of the indigenous origin 

 of the Dingo should be called upon to explain. The evolution 

 of a modified northern wolf in an isolated portion of the 

 Southern Hemisphere, tenanted solely by Ornithodelphians,. 

 Didelphians, and a few stray Monodelphian rodents and bats, 

 is a thing which is zoologically inconceivable. 



(2) The doctrine that the Dingo is "one of the most 

 ancient of the living Australian land mammals," enunciated 



