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<\/p>\nTasmanian devils are not an animal ordinarily thought of in connection with the remote north of Western Australia.<\/p>\n
But a new study suggests the marsupial may have played an important clean-up role for people in the Pilbara before being driven out by the arrival of the dingo.<\/p>\n
Palaeontologist Tim Churchill said the devil specimens were among thousands of animal bones and rare artefacts uncovered during ongoing excavations at Juukan Gorge, about 1500 kilometres north west of Perth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Photos of pieces of Tasmanian devil jaw bone found at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara. (Supplied: University of New South Wales)<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“The other dating to before the last glacial maximum at around 43 to 47,000 years old.”<\/p>\n
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Researchers have uncovered part of a jaw and part of a tooth of Tasmanian devils in the Pilbara. (Supplied: Aussie Ark)<\/p>\n
The new research also showed the devils were visiting Juukan Gorge rock shelters frequently.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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Various bones from Juukan Gorge excavation show bite marks from Tasmanian devils. (Supplied: University of New South Wales)<\/p>\n
The bones were found in the same area as other artefacts linked to humans, including shell beads, bone tools and braided hair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Churchill said evidence showed the devils acted like a clean-up crew, scavenging on animal remains and scraps from the camps of humans.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Devils driven out by dingoes<\/p>\n
The arrival of the dingo about 4,000 years ago is a suggested cause for the extinction of the devils from the Australian mainland, with the animals estimated to have disappeared about 800 years later.<\/p>\n
Researchers said the arrival of dingoes in the Pilbara may have disrupted the relationship between Tasmanian devils and humans.<\/p>\n
“Did the dingo directly kill and eat the devils or were they just competing with them over food sources?” Dr Churchill said.<\/p>\n
“Perhaps dingoes replaced the devils as a man’s best friend, as the scavenger of their bones and their waste.”Apex competition<\/p>\n
Curtin University’s Bill Bateman said dingoes were Australia’s apex mammal predator.<\/p>\n
“Dingoes are great hunters and great opportunists,” he said.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor Bateman said it was likely dingoes had an effect on the mainland Tasmanian devil populations.<\/p>\n
“There was still a period of time when both species existed together for about a thousand years before the devils’ mainland extinction,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But at the same time the climate was changing, becoming more arid, so it may have been a combination of effects.”<\/p>\n
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Dingoes are still found in West Australia’s Pilbara region. (ABC Midwest Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n
Incredibly significant site<\/p>\n