Sarcophilus laniarius is an extinct species of large Tasmanian devil. Richard Owen originally called the specimen on which the genus was based Dasyurus laniarus. Fossil deposits in limestone caves at Naracoorte, South Australia dating to the Miocene include specimens of S. laniarius, which were around 15% larger and 50% heavier than modern devils. Older specimens believed to be 50–70,000 years old were found in Darling Downs in Queensland and in Western Australia. It is not clear whether the modern devil evolved from S. laniarius, or whether they coexisted at the time. Richard Owen argued for the latter hypothesis in the 19th century based on fossils found in 1877 in New South Wales. It has been conjectured that S. laniarius and S. moornaensis, another now-extinct larger species, may have