New fossils show Tasmanian devils lived with people in outback Western Australia 45,000 years ago

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.

Skeletal remains of Tasmanian devils have been found in deposits from southern Australia to the tropical north, across the Nullarbor, central Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory and parts of southern Western Australia.

Yet one major region was missing from this record: Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Our new study , published in Archaeology in Oceania, reports the first unequivocal evidence of Tasmanian devils from the Pilbara, recovered from the Juukan 2 rockshelter on Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Country.

Why the Juukan rockshelter matters Juukan 2 was a large rockshelter in the western Hamersley Plateau.

Archaeological research has shown people used the shelter from at least 47,000 years ago , including through the dry Last Glacial Maximum (roughly 29,000 to 19,000 years ago).

The shelter is the only known mainland northern Australian Pleistocene-aged archaeological site where faunal remains occur in unequivocal association with stone tools.

Its deposits preserve an unusually detailed record of people, animals and environmental change.

That record became internationally significant after Juukan 2 was extensively damaged by mining blasting in 2020.

Research and rehabilitation have since continued under the direction of Traditional Owners .

Archaeological research has shown people used the Juukan 2 rockshelter from at least 47,000 years ago.