Posted on 12/20/2021 5:15:51 PM PST by Scarlett156
The largest-ever fossil of a giant millipede—as big as a car—has been found on a beach in the north of England.
The fossil—the remains of a creature called Arthropleura—dates from the Carboniferous Period, about 326 million years ago, over 100 million years before the Age of Dinosaurs. The fossil reveals that Arthropleura was the largest-known invertebrate animal of all time, larger than the ancient sea scorpions that were the previous record holders.
The specimen, found on a Northumberland beach about 40 miles north of Newcastle, is made up of multiple articulated exoskeleton segments, broadly similar in form to modern millipedes. It is just the third such fossil ever found. It is also the oldest and largest: the segment is about 75 centimeters long, while the original creature is estimated to have measured around 2.7 meters long and weighed around 50 kilograms. The results are reported in the Journal of the Geological Society.
The fossil was discovered in January 2018 in a large block of sandstone that had fallen from a cliff to the beach at Howick Bay in Northumberland. "It was a complete fluke of a discovery," said Dr. Neil Davies from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences, the paper's lead author. "The way the boulder had fallen, it had cracked open and perfectly exposed the fossil, which one of our former Ph.D. students happened to spot when walking by."
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
I still like the sea scorpions, by the way.
For some reason that headline made me instantly think of Monty Python.
I wish they would come back.
Considering how big cars are in England, that’s not saying much.
Now that’s the stuff of nightmares!
The Finns are probably breeding them for food somewhere in the northern waste.
Yes, but in a very unpleasant and unwholesome way.
Global warming of major proportions now does seem to be existential risk...
[Giant bugs]
If you ran over one with your car, it would likely flatten your tires.
And now you know why Newcastle Brown Ale tastes so good.
Millipedes might be easier and cheaper to raise than chickens.
It’s the millipedes.
Considering that insects do not have lungs, but must absorb oxygen thru tubes going through their bodies, it limits the size they can achieve.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_system_of_insects
Either these millipedes had some very different structures, or the atmospheric oxygen level was very different those days.
The article says the “carboniferous” period. There were at that time giant dragonflies and (my favorite) the giant sea scorpion. Also (according to the article) the british isles were much closer to the equator.
“The animal can be seen to have only existed in places that were once located at the Equator, such as Great Britain during the Carboniferous. Previous reconstructions have suggested that the animal lived in coal swamps, but this specimen showed Arthropleura preferred open woodland habitats near the coast.”
Giant millipedes. Galloping through the open woodlands.
This sounds like the premise for a Roger Corman film!
Not sure my 300 winny would take it out.
Good thing millipedes aren’t venomous. But they are poisonous. So don’t eat one of those giant millipedes.
English cars are pretty small, and were probably even smaller back in the Carboniferous period ...
That’s the same question I had. Granted, it’s been over 40 years since I darkened the door of a biology classroom, but how the heck would a bug that big breathe?
Gives new meaning for Roach Coach.
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