notoryctid

plural notoryctids

1. biologyA marsupial mole, of the family Notoryctidae.

   Modern notoryctids are confined to deserts in Australia and exhibit numerous anatomical specializations that appear exceptionally well suited to burrowing through desert sands.

   2010 November 3, Michael Archer, Robin Beck, Miranda Gott, Suzanne Hand, Henk Godthelp, Karen Black, “Australia's first fossil marsupial mole (Notoryctemorphia) resolves controversies about their evolution and palaeoenvironmental origins”, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, →DOI, archived from the original on 17 May 2026, page 1499 of 1498-1506

   2 more examples

   While specialisation of the musculo-skeletal system have been so widespread as to obscure almost any phylogenetically relevant patterns, there is evidence to support a sister group relationship of notoryctids and peramelid bandicoots (Peramelidae).

   2006, Natalie Marina Warburton, “Functional morphology of marsupial moles (Marsupialia: Notoryctidae)”, in Verhandlungen des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins in Hamburg, volume 42, page 39 of 39-149

   For the latter, we estimate that lens/cornea genes were inactivated ~17.8 million years ago (MYA) when stem notoryctids were burrowing in the soft soils of Australian rainforests. […] In contrast, if the eyes of N. typhlops degenerated rapidly and recently in response to increasingly sandy soil, then there may have been less time for the accumulation of inactivating mutations in notoryctid eye-specific genes than in chrysochlorid eye-specific genes.

   2023 October 28, Mark S. Springer, Christopher A. Emerling, John Gatesy, “Three Blind Moles: Molecular Evolutionary Insights on the Tempo and Mode of Convergent Eye Degeneration in Notoryctes typhlops (Southern Marsupial Mole) and Two Chrysochlorids (Golden Moles)”, in Genes, volume 14, number 11, →DOI, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2025

   Synonyms: marsupial mole