Fossil evidence indicates that Tasmanian devils lived in outback Western Australia about 45,000 years ago, according to new research reported by multiple outlets. The findings add to understanding that the species’ modern range is much smaller than it once was.
Today, Tasmanian devils are restricted mainly to Tasmania and are not found across Australia’s mainland. The new fossils suggest that, thousands of years ago, devils were present on the mainland, including in arid regions of Western Australia. This shifts the historical picture from the current distribution to one in which the animal once occupied a broader habitat range.
Both sources describe Tasmanian devils as a distinctive Australian mammal and emphasize that their presence on mainland Australia is supported by the fossil record. While the outlets align on the broad implication—that the species previously occurred outside Tasmania—the reports focus on different levels of context, with one foregrounding the species’ modern confinement and the other highlighting the long-ago mainland presence revealed by the fossils.
