[3] The genus name is sometimes spelled Necrophorus in older texts: this was an unjustified emendation by Carl Peter Thunberg (1789) of Fabricius's original name, and is not valid under the ICZN.

[4] Burying beetles have large club-like antennae equipped with chemoreceptors capable of detecting a dead animal from a long distance.

Pairs of Nicrophorus nepalensis prepare carcasses and care for the developing larvae in a joint fashion.

Burying beetle life cycle The prospective parents begin to dig a hole below the carcass.

[10] It is also thought the parent beetles can produce secretions from head glands that have anti-microbial activity, inhibiting the growth of bacteria and fungi on the vertebrate corpse.

[12] Throughout the entirety of the larva's development, the parents fight off these competitors all the while maintaining an ideal nursery inside the carcass for their offspring.

[3] The most successful beetle parents will achieve a good balance between the size of offspring and the number produced.

[14] As of 2020, the American burying beetle (N. americanus) was reclassified from the endangered category to threatened by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

[18] An extinct unnamed member of the genus is known from the Late Cretaceous Cenomanian aged Burmese amber of Myanmar, around 99 million years old.