Too hot for the devil? Did climate change cause the mid-Holocene extinction of the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) from mainland Australia?

The possible role of climate change in late Quaternary animal extinctions
is hotly debated, yet few studies have investigated its direct effects on
animal physiology to assess whether past climate changes might have had
significant impacts on now-extinct species. Here we test whether climate
change could have imposed physiological stress on the Tasmanian devil
(Sarcophilus harrisii) during the mid-Holocene, when the species went
extinct on mainland Australia. Physiological values for the devil were
quantified using mechanistic niche models of energy and water requirements
for thermoregulation, and soil-moisture-based indices of plant stress from
drought to indirectly represent food and water availability. The spatial
pervasiveness, extremity, and frequency of physiological stresses were
compared between a period of known climatic and presumed demographic
stability (8000-6010 BP) and the extinction period (5000-3010 BP). We
found no evidence of widespread negative effects of climate on
physiological parameters for the devil on the mainland during its
extinction window. This leaves cultural and demographic changes in the
human population or competition from the dingo (Canis dingo) as the main
contending hypotheses to explain mainland loss of the devil in the
mid-Holocene.