Marsupial mole facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Marsupial moles Temporal range: Miocene to Recent

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	Notoryctemorphia Kirsch, in Hunsaker, 1977
Family:	Notoryctidae Ogilby, 1892
Genus:	Notoryctes Stirling, 1891

Marsupial moles (Notoryctidae) is a family of marsupials of the order Notoryctemorphia. There are only two extant species:

Notoryctes typhlops (Southern Marsupial Mole)
Notoryctes caurinus (Northern Marsupial Mole)

Description

The two species of marsupial moles are rare and poorly understood burrowing mammals of the deserts of Western Australia.

Marsupial moles spend most of their time underground, coming to the surface only occasionally, probably mostly after rains. They are blind, their eyes having become reduced to vestigial lenses under the skin, and they have no external ears, just a pair of tiny holes hidden under thick hair. They do not dig permanent burrows, filling the tunnel in behind them as they move.

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