Tasmanian devils' surprising role in WA's Pilbara region

Tasmanian devils are not typically associated with Western Australia's Pilbara region, but new research suggests they may have played a crucial clean-up role for humans in the area before being driven out by the arrival of dingoes.

Palaeontologist Tim Churchill said the discovery of Tasmanian devil specimens among thousands of animal bones and rare artefacts at Juukan Gorge, about 1500 kilometres northwest of Perth, sheds new light on the marsupial's presence in the region.

"There are two very clear specimens of the Tasmanian devil, one dating from the Holocene at around 7,000 years ago," Dr Churchill, from the University of New South Wales, said.

"The other dating to before the last glacial maximum at around 43 to 47,000 years old."

Researchers found part of a jaw and part of a tooth of Tasmanian devils in the Pilbara, along with evidence of bones that had been chewed and digested by devils.

"We found lots of evidence of bones that have been chewed and digested by devils, which suggests that devils were accessing carrion that was accumulated by humans," Dr Churchill said.

The bones were found in the same area as other artefacts linked to humans, including shell beads, bone tools and braided hair.

Dr Churchill said the evidence showed that Tasmanian devils acted like a clean-up crew, scavenging on animal remains and scraps from human camps.

"I think that this is what's particularly interesting about this story is that Tasmanian devils may have had a much closer place in the lives of ancient Australians than we previously recognised," he said.

The arrival of dingoes about 4,000 years ago is thought to have contributed to the extinction of Tasmanian devils from the Australian mainland, with the animals estimated to have disappeared about 800 years later.

Curtin University's Bill Bateman said dingoes were Australia's apex mammal predator and likely had an impact on mainland Tasmanian devil populations.

"Dingoes are great hunters and great opportunists," he said.

"There was still a period of time when both species existed together for about a thousand years before the devils' mainland extinction," he said.

Dr Churchill said the Juukan Gorge site was incredibly rare, with animal remains found in close association with stone artefacts and human occupation.

"It is actually the only site in northern Australia that has animal remains in close association with stone artefacts and human occupation," he said.

"Juukan Gorge is by far the most interesting archaeological site, certainly from a zooarchaeological perspective, that we've found so far in Australia."

PKK Land Committee chair Burchell Hayes said the excavation of the devil fossils was just one part of the story emerging from the site.

"While it is another reminder of what has been lost, finding remains of Tasmanian devils at the Juukan rock shelters again highlights their incredible significance both culturally and scientifically," he said.

"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."