Principal speaker
Dr Loukas Koungoulos
The arrival of the dingo is regarded as a centrally important event in Australia's Late Holocene history, marking both a contact event between Aboriginal people and the outside world, as well as transformations in Australian economic organisation. After many decades of research, several fundamental questions about the dingo remain unresolved: where did it come from, and when? Is, or was it ever domesticated? And how did its arrival affect the existing cultural and natural systems of Australia? In this seminar, I will highlight our recent work in understanding these fundamental questions about the dingo's origins through the use of morphometrics, DNA and ethnohistorical records. I will also give a look into some of the exciting upcoming research & future directions in this area.
Bio: Loukas is a zooarchaeologist currently based at the Australian Museum and the Australian National University. He completed a PhD in 2022 examining the history of the dingo through 3D geometric morphometrics and has since been working on the ARC-funded project "The coming of the dingo", which aims to identify the arrival time and impacts of the dingo on the lives of Aboriginal people during the Late Holocene. Loukas is also working on describing the fauna from Lachitu Cave, a Pleistocene site in northern Papua New Guinea.