Necrolestes ("grave robber" or "thief of the dead") is an extinct genus of mammals, which lived during the Early Miocene in what is now Argentine Patagonia.

[3] The forelimbs have numerous characters in common with those of fossorial mammals, including a medially curved olecranon process of the ulna, and a mediolaterally compressed head of the humerus.

[3] Its classification was historically unclear due to it being highly apomorphic and having an anatomy unlike any other known mammal, living or extinct.

However, phylogenetic analyses conducted by Rougier et al. (2012), Chimento, Agnolin and Novas (2012) and Averianov, Martin and Lopatin (2013) recovered Necrolestes in an unexpected phylogenetic position as a nontherian mammal that belonged to the clade Meridiolestida;[5][6][7] if confirmed this would make Necrolestes the youngest known member of the group.

[3] This cladogram follows the paper of Rougier, Wible, Beck and Apesteguía of 2012:[5] Leonardus Cronopio Necrolestes Reigitherium Peligrotherium Mesungulatum Coloniatherium