GENES belonging to an old dingo could hold the key to the native dog’s survival.

With the animal on the brink of becoming endangered, a Queensland researcher believes the DNA of a 350-year-old dead dingo could be used to help find the areas of genetically pure dogs.

“One of the big issues facing the survival of the species is their inter-breeding with domestic dogs. The situation is so bad that we could very well see the loss of genetically-pure dingoes altogether,” Dr Sankarasubramanian said.

“Given this inter-breeding has happened since European settlement of Australia, how do you measure a genetically-pure dingo? The answer is to go back before settlement, and, fortunately, our team has access to the bones of a 350-year old dingo, which provides an excellent baseline.”

Dr Sankarasubramanian will now travel to the US to work with expert scientists at the Smithsonian Institute after receiving a grant from the Queensland government.