[5] Although the southern marsupial mole was probably known by Aboriginal Australians for thousands of years, the first specimen examined by the scientific community was collected in 1888.

Stockman W. Coulthard made the discovery on Idracowra Pastoral Lease in the Northern Territory by following some unusual prints that led him to the animal lying under a tussock.

[6] Not knowing what to do with the strange creature, he wrapped it in a kerosene soaked rag, placed it in a revolver cartridge box and forwarded it to E. C. Stirling, the Director of the South Australian Museum.

[7] Nineteenth century scientists believed that marsupials and eutherians had evolved from the same primitive ancestor and were looking for a living specimen that would serve as the missing link.

Although the family Notoryctidae is poorly represented in the fossil record there is evidence of at least one distinct genus Yalkaparidon, in the early Miocene sediments in the Riversleigh deposit in northern Australia.

[8] Due to their highly specialized morphology and the fact that notoryctids share many common characteristics with other marsupials, there has been much debate surrounding their phylogeny.

The Riversleigh fossil material suggests that Notoryctes was already well adapted for burrowing and probably lived in the rainforest that covered much of Australia at that time.

The increase in aridity at the end of Tertiary was likely one of the key contributing factors to the development of the current highly specialized form of marsupial mole.

The dentition varies with individuals and, because the molars have a root of only one third of the length, it has been assumed that moles cannot deal with hard food substances.

This seems to suggest that the olfactory sense plays an important role in the marsupial mole’s life, as it would be expected for a creature living in an environment lacking visual stimuli.

Because it lives underground, where the temperature is considerably lower than at the surface, the southern marsupial mole does not seem to have any special adaptations to desert life.

[16] Above the ground it moves in a sinuous fashion, using its powerful forelimbs to haul the body over the surface and its hind limbs to push forward.

Moles move about the surface with frantic haste but little speed, as one observer once likened it to a "Volkswagen Beetle heaving its way through the sand".

Although it spends most of its active time 20-100 cm below the surface, tunneling horizontally or at shallow angles, it sometimes for no apparent reason turns suddenly and burrows vertically to depths of up to 2.5 meters.

[17] Although most food sources are likely to occur at depths of approximately 50 cm from the surface, the temperature of these environments varies greatly from less than 15°C during winter to over 35°C during summer.

[6] Little is known about the southern marsupial mole's diet, and all information is based on the gut content of preserved animals and on observations made on captive specimens.

[16] Because burrowing requires high energy expenditure it seems unlikely that the mole searches for its food in this prey impoverished environment, and suggests that it probably feeds within nests.

Although the decreasing acquisition rate is difficult to interpret due to the chance nature of the findings, there are reasons for concern.