Necrolestes

Necrolestes
Temporal range: Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian-Santacrucian)
~21.0–17.5 Ma
Skull of N. patagonensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Cladotheria
Clade: Meridiolestida
Family: Necrolestidae
Ameghino, 1891[1]
Genus: Necrolestes
Ameghino, 1891
Type species
Necrolestes patagonensis
Ameghino, 1891
Species
  • N. patagonensis Ameghino, 1891
  • N. mirabilis Goin et al., 2007

Necrolestes ("grave robber" or "thief of the dead") is an extinct genus of mammals, which lived during the Early Miocene in what is now Argentine Patagonia. It is the most recent known genus of Meridiolestida, an extinct group of mammals more closely related to therians (marsupials and placentals) than to monotremes, which were the dominant mammals in South America during the Late Cretaceous. It contains two species, N. patagonensis and N. mirabilis; the type species N. patagonensis was named by Florentino Ameghino in 1891 based on remains found by his brother, Carlos Ameghino in Patagonia. Fossils of Necrolestes have been found in the Sarmiento and Santa Cruz Formations.[2] Its morphology suggests that it was a digging, subterranean-dwelling mole-like mammal that fed on invertebrates.

  1. ^ Florentino Ameghino (1891). "Nuevos restos de mamíferos fósiles descubiertos por Carlos Ameghino en el Eoceno inferior de la Patagonia austral. Especies nuevas, adiciones y correciones". Revista Argentina de Historia Natural. 1: 289–328.
  2. ^ Necrolestes at Fossilworks.org