Tasmanian devils lived alongside humans in Pilbara for millennia, Juukan Gorge fossils reveal
Researchers find fossils ranging from 7,000 years to 46,000 years old showing evidence that devils may have become reliant on humans for scavenging
Tasmanian devils lived alongside humans in Western Australia’s Pilbara region for tens of thousands of years, according to fossils uncovered at Juukan Gorge.
These squat and sable marsupials, now restricted to Tasmania, were once abundant right across Australia, becoming extinct on the mainland about 3,200 years ago.
Excavations of the ancient rock shelter, destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020, have uncovered jaw and teeth fragments confirming the presence of devils in northwestern Australia – previously a gap in the fossil record.
Dr Tim Churchill, a palaeontologist at UNSW and lead author of the research, said the devil fossils, dated to 7,000 and 46,000 years old, were found alongside evidence of their scavenging throughout the time period, including “bite marks on bones” and “acid digestion of bone fragments”.
Devils were there the entire time, he said, persisting through huge variations in climate, from warm and wet periods, to the last glacial maximum, or ice age, when Australia was cooler and drier. “The Tasmanian devil seems to be pretty unbothered with the changes and adapted.”
“We picture them today living in the cold, wet forests of Tasmania, but they’re in fact a highly adaptable species that could be found across the entire mainland continent including the arid, rocky gorge lands of the Pilbara.”
Some gnawed and digested bones may have been scraps and leftovers from human camps, suggesting a long-running relationship between people and devils over tens of thousands of years.
The marsupial’s presence was probably beneficial to the rock shelter’s human inhabitants performing the role of a “local cleanup crew”, Churchill said, removing rotting carrion and reducing the risk of disease. “Having a garbage compactor on four legs running around would have definitely been an advantage.”
“What we’ve realised from the evidence at Juukan Gorge is that the Tasmanian devils were using human camps as a source of food. And as human abundance increased over the last 50,000 years, devils may have grown increasingly reliant on human camps for a source of scavenging.”
That long-standing bond likely continued until dingos arrived on the mainland, an event that was soon followed by the disappearance of devils and thylacines.
While there were still many unanswered questions, Churchill said, the research in Archaeology in Oceania suggested dingos may have “knocked the devils off their perch”, supplanting them as the primary scavenger around human camps as well as in the wild.
“Juukan Gorge contains an irreplaceable record of how people, animals and environments changed together over tens of thousands of years,” Churchill said.
The fossils were just one part of the story still emerging from excavations of the damaged rock shelters, which have also uncovered stone artefacts, campfires, shell beads, bone tools and even a belt made from human hair.
Burchell Hayes, chair of the PKK Land Committee, said the devil remains found at the Juukan rock shelters, highlighted their incredible significance both culturally and scientifically, and were another reminder of what had been lost.
“The excavation and research of the devil fossils, and the conclusion they were scavenging off human camps more than 40,000 years ago, again links ancestors of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama people to the area.”
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