Tasmanian devils lived with people in outback Western Australia 45,000 years ago, new fossils show
Tasmanian devils are among Australia's most distinctive mammals. Stocky, powerful and famously noisy, wild populations are now restricted to Tasmania. But this was not always the case. In fact, thousands of years ago, devils could be found across mainland Australia.
Tasmanian devils, known for their distinctive appearance and powerful nature, once roamed across mainland Australia, including the Pilbara region in Western Australia. This revelation comes from a new study published in Archaeology in Oceania, which provides the first concrete evidence of these creatures' presence in the Pilbara.
The study was conducted on the Juukan 2 rockshelter, a site used by people for thousands of years, dating back to at least 47,000 years ago. Two key fossils discovered at Juukan, a lower jaw and a bone fragment, provide evidence of Tasmanian devils' presence in the area dating back 42,500 to 47,100 years. The fossils, along with other evidence like chewed bones and digested bone fragments, indicate that Tasmanian devils were a regular part of the scavenger community at Juukan, despite the region being cooler and more temperate than where they are found today.
This discovery not only adds to our understanding of Tasmanian devil history but also highlights the complex relationships between humans and these animals over a vast period. The study suggests that the arrival of dingoes, which competes with devils for food, may have contributed to their eventual extinction in mainland Australia around 3,200 years ago.
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