Necrolestes patagonensis

Necrolestes 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 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. Its morphology suggests that it was a digging, subterranean-dwelling mole-like mammal that fed on invertebrates.

Necrolestes patagonensis

Hemiauchenia · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NecrolestesPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Mammaliaformes
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 2.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 20.45 Mya to 17.5 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 16.3 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesMiocene — about 3 of 3 occurrencesMiocene23–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20.45 Mya17.5 Mya23.5 Mya15.8 Mya

3 occurrences of Necrolestes patagonensis on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.20°S, 69.12°WSanta Cruz — 51.08°S, 69.13°WMonte Leon — 50.34°S, 68.96°W

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The named rock units Necrolestes patagonensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Necrolestes patagonensis and its relatives

Miocene

Where Necrolestes patagonensis and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

2 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Necrolestes patagonensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Necrolestes patagonensis

Credit
Hemiauchenia
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Necrolestes patagonensis was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNecrolestes through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1891