Grave Robber Mammal Necrolestes

Grave Robber mammal Necrolestes

Necrolestes was an ancient mammal whose name means Grave Robber or Thief of the Dead.  It was a mammal that we THOUGHT lived in the mid-Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era. . . about 16 million years ago.  It was only about 6 inches or 15 cm long.  It was discovered over 125 years ago in the Patagonia area of South America.  .  The big surprise is that a team of paleontologists from the University of Louisville recently found a new fossil that is essentially the same animal.  But the new fossil is dated to the late Cretaceous Period...BEFORE the dinosaurs died off.  So Necrolestes survived the dinosaur extinction.  This is also a big deal because it indicates that he species survived something like 45 million years.  MOST species only last around 3 million years.  

Necrolestes' niche was pretty much like modern moles.  It was mammal that lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs, but also outlived them!  Its triangle shaped teeth appear to be adapted for eating worms. 

The other animal, the Theropod or meat eating dinosaur is a South American dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period.   It is a megaraptorian or very large raptor dinosaur.  It is called Tratayenia.  It was 26 ft or 8 meters long.  It may have had feathers, but maybe not.  I drew it with feathers.  This one in my drawing would be an adolescent . . . not an adult.  The Necrolestes is not terrified because it recognizes a juvenile and its burrow is close at hand.

FYI... I just learned about Necrolestes by watching Dinosaur Train TV show...with my granddaughter.  She loves that show and I must admit...I do too!  It features a great Paleonotlogist who obviously likes kids. . . his name is Dr. Scott Sampson, but he goes by "Dr. Scott" on the show.
I highly recommend this show.  Dr. Sampson always encourages kids to get outside and make their own discoveries.  Dr. Sampson also wrote an excellent book called, Dinosaur Odyssey.  It is available on Kindle. 

Necrolestes on the Dinosaur Train

NOTE:  The printable version of this drawing is found by hitting the top button labeled "All Printables" and scrolling down to the bottom of the list. . . OR by clicking on the "Paleontology" button and scrolling down the list to the "Animals of the Mesozoic Era" section and then going to the bottom of that sub-list.