Necrolestes

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Necrolestes
Temporal range:
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

Santa Cruz Formations.[2]
Its morphology suggests that it was a digging, subterranean-dwelling mole-like mammal that fed on invertebrates.

Description

Lower jaw

About one-third of the skeleton of N. patagonensis—including most of the skull— has been found as disassociated bones of several individuals. The snout bends upwards at its end. The opening of the nasal fenestra has a septomaxilla separating the nasal and premaxilla bones, which is unknown in therian mammals, with the nasal fenestra also appearing to have ossified external nasal cartilage.[3] The forelimbs have numerous characters in common with those of fossorial mammals, including a medially curved olecranon process of the ulna, and a mediolaterally compressed head of the humerus.[4]

Ecology

Necrolestes was probably a subterranean mole-like mammal that fed on invertebrates. The morphology of the snout suggests that it dug by lifting its snout upwards, similar to modern marsupial moles and golden moles, as well as by using its forelimbs. The high volume of the middle ear suggests that it had enhanced hearing of low-frequency sounds.[3]

Classification

Its classification was historically unclear due to it being highly

Cronopio and Leonardus;[5] Chimento et al. (2012) found it to be in unresolved polytomy with Cronopio, Leonardus and the clade containing all other meridiolestidans[6] while Averianov et al. (2013) recovered Cronopio, Necrolestes and Leonardus as forming a grade at the base of Meridiolestida rather than a clade.[7] A subsequent 2017 monograph of the skull anatomy further supported a placement within Meridiolestida.[3]

Phylogeny

This cladogram follows the paper of Rougier, Wible, Beck and Apesteguía of 2012:[5]

Meridiolestida

References

  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
  3. ^
    ISSN 0097-4463
    .
  4. ISSN 0003-0082
    .
  5. ^
    PMID 23169652
    .
  6. ^ a b Nicolás R. Chimento, Federico L. Agnolin and Fernando E. Novas (2012). "The Patagonian fossil mammal Necrolestes: a Neogene survivor of Dryolestoidea" (PDF). Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Nueva Serie. 14 (2): 261–306. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  7. ^
    S2CID 18504005
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Necrolestes&oldid=1217250276"