Is the only difference between a wolf and a dingo the name, or is a dingo just a kind of wolf?

looney_tunes

A dingo is a wild dog, probably brought to Australia from Southeast Asia. http://www.australianfauna.com/dingo.php Since its first official nomenclature in 1792 (Canis antarcticus) the scientific name of the dingo has changed several times. The name Canis familiaris dingo, which treats the dingo as a subspecies of domestic dog (and the domestic dog as a species separate from wolves), has been the most frequently used term over the last 50 years. In taxonomy the most accepted name today is the term Canis lupus dingo, however this name is not very common in literature. Furthermore the terms Canis dingo, which classes the dingo as a separate species from both dogs and wolves, and Canis lupus familiaris dingo are used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo Related in an (as yet) unclear way, not the same thing. Dec 21 09, 10:22 PM

Zbeckabee

Dingoes are a type of Asian dog which is possibly derived from the Indian or Arabian wolf by domestication not more than 10,000 year before present (Corbett, 1995, Ch1). They have been spread throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific by man. They first arrived in Australia less than 5,000 BP. Although they have many distinct physical and behavioural characteristics that differentiate them from domestic dogs, such as an annual breeding cycle, the two species interbreed and produce fertile offspring as do many wolf-like species. The Australian dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is recognised as a subspecies of the wolf-like canids. It is biologically distinct from dogs with differences in reproduction (dingoes breed only once a year), coat colour, and other physical and physiological characters (Corbett, Ch3). http://www.wolfweb.com.au/acd/genvarindingo.htm Dec 21 09, 10:59 PM