It lives in the loose sand of dunes and river plains in the desert, spending nearly its entire life beneath ground.

[3] The facial features are reduced or absent; their small and strong bodies, weighing little more than 30 grams (1 ounce), are extremely specialised in moving through sand in search of prey.

[4] The specimen described by Thomas was collected in 1910 by a postal official at Wollal, at Ninety Mile Beach in north-western Australia, and this was conveyed to the Western Australian Museum.

[5] A fossorial animal, the highly specialised form of the body is tubular, its head narrowing in view to a conical shape and the limbs are short and well suited to digging.

[6] A pouch used in rearing young, a feature common to marsupials and as is usual for subterranean species, faces away from the direction of travel to avoid sand entering it.

The vertebrae at the hind part of kakarratul are completely fused, a unique characteristic amongst the marsupials, and the spinal column is greatly strengthened; the side view of the spine shows a flattened profile that is also advantageous to its fossorial habits.

[7] In an example of convergent evolution, the unusual metabolism of the species was compared to the physiology of a placental mammal of a golden mole found in Africa, similar in form and ecological factors, the subspecies Eremitalpa granti namibensis.

[1] The vegetation is typical of the central regions, acacia and other hardy shrubs or small trees, and this species is also often associated with habitat around Triodia (spinifex) hummocks.

[1] Large numbers of specimens were collected in the early twentieth century, and informal reports of a fur trade using the pelt of the animal are noted.

[5] The genus Notoryctes closely resembles a placental mammal found in Africa, known as the golden mole, and this is thought to be an example of convergent, rather than parallel, evolution.

The features and tubular form of the body somewhat resemble the family Talpidae, referred to as moles, an animal that excavates tunnels rather than swimming through sand.