Reconstructing body mass of the Australian dingo (Canis dingo) from two simple measurements of the hard palate

The ability to determine body mass from skulls is valuable for understanding various ecological, physiological, and evolutionary factors. In the Canidae, numerous methods to reconstruct body mass from measurements of the skull have been proposed, however there is no one-size fits all approach that can be applied across all species and subspecies. Added to this, current methods of reconstructing body mass are often complex, and have relatively high error rates. We aimed to produce a multivariate regression equation to estimate body mass of the Australian dingo (Canis dingo) from simple measurements of the skull, whilst ensuring that it could also be used in studies of encephalisation. To do this, we focussed on palate length (PL), palate width (PW) and the length of the first upper molar (M1). A total of 128 adult dingo (64 male; 64 female) crania from one region of Australia with known body mass were measured. Overall, the combination of PL and PW was the best predictor of body mass, with M1 having poor predictability. The model, mass (kg) = 0.246 ∗ (PL) + 0.320 ∗ (PW) − 24.757 produced a prediction error of 8.05%. Thus, these two measures of the palate provide simple and accurate predictors of body mass for the dingo. This will be useful for modern dingo specimens, as well as those found at archaeological sites and in museum collections that often consist of incomplete cranial material. The reconstruction of dingo body size is useful for evaluating variation in body mass through time, and across the Australian continent, particularly in the context of human activity. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd