Australia’s modern population of dingoes, an ancient lineage of canids, comprises two genetically distinct groups that inhabit different sides of the country (west and east). Many have attributed this divergence to the nearly 3,500-mile-long “dingo fence,” a barrier installed to prevent access to livestock, that created a division of Australia into large southeast and northwest sections around 150 years ago. However, having analyzed DNA from ancient dingo specimens ranging from hundreds to thousands of years old, paleogeneticist Sally Wasef and colleagues reject that common explanation.
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Verbal·Information and Ideas·Command of Evidence
hardWhich finding, if true, would most directly explain why Wasef and colleagues reject the common explanation presented in the text?
A
The continent-wide population structure of modern dingoes matches that of the dingoes that were present in Australia around 2,000 years ago.
B
Ancient dingoes quickly dispersed throughout Australia after being introduced in two independent waves from distinct source populations at least 3,000 years ago.
C
The two earliest known sets of skeletal dingo remains in Australia date to around 3,400 years ago at a site in the west and around 3,300 years ago at a site in the east.
D
New Guinea singing dogs, a closely related species, began interbreeding with dingoes in southeast Australia 2,200–2,600 years ago and with dingoes in northwest Australia in the same period.