Necrolestes (was Re: mesosaurus)

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Jaime A. Headden wrote:

>   Burrowing lifestyles in some vertebrates, as in *Necrolestes* 
> ("marsupial mole"),

.. not to be confused with _Notoryctes_, the modern marsupial mole of 
Australia.  Necrolestids and notoryctids are not closely related, and the 
former are long-extinct.  I'm not even sure that necrolestids are even 
considered marsupials by all researchers, though they are superficially 
mole-like.

> Digging animals tend to be "mole-like" and show crooked arms,
> short forelimbs with huge manus and claws, and giant olecranons. They've
> appeared in marsupials, insectivorans, basal afrotheres, etc., and these
> adaptations even occur in some edentates.

And in alvarezsaurids too.  In this group, these fossorial features 
complement a very slender and cursorial body that is very un-mole-like.