A massive fossil of a millipede, which grew as big as a car, has been discovered on the Northumberland beach about 64 kilometres north of Newcastle in England. Surprisingly, the millipedes called ‘Arthropleura‘ measured around 2.7 metres long (8.9 feet) and weighed around 50 kilograms, the discoverers noted in their study published in the Journal of the Geological Society. With the fossil being two-and-a-half feet long and dating back to about 326 million years, it is the largest and the oldest fossil ever discovered.
‘Complete fluke of a discovery’, says lead study author
Dr. Neil Davies from Cambridge University’s Department of Earth Sciences and the paper’s lead author has called the findings a “complete fluke of a discovery”. The fossil was first discovered in January 2018 in a large block of sandstone that had fallen from a cliff to the beach. “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”, Davies added as per Cambridge University’s report.
Interestingly, the findings suggest that these creatures roamed the Earth over 100 million years before the age of dinosaurs. With this discovery, these millipedes officially are the largest-known invertebrate animal of all time, a record previously held by ancient sea scorpions. The study suggested that Great Britain used to lay near the equator, millions of years ago, before the continents drifted apart to form the modern world map. As a result, the Northumberland area used to have a more tropical climate unlike the cool and wet weather associated with the region today, giving a thriving environment to these creatures.
Moreover, the Cambridge experts revealed that this new specimen showed Arthropleura preferred open woodland habitats near the coast in contrast to the earlier claims suggesting their habitat in coal swamps. Further talking about the discovery and the scope of learning ahead, Davies said as per a Cambridge report-
Finding these giant millipede fossils is rare, because once they died, their bodies tend to disarticulate, so it’s likely that the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew.
However, he added that knowing everything about them is difficult as of now as they have not found a fossilised head. Shedding more light on its size, the study authors revealed that the creature must have had a high-nutrient diet. While the exact diet is not known, the experts reckoned that the millipedes might have fed on nuts and seeds available in the leaf litter or other invertebrates and smaller amphibians. The creatures crawled around Earth’s equatorial region for around 45 million years but went extinct due to uncertain reasons.
A massive fossil of a millipede, which grew as big as a car, has been discovered on the Northumberland beach about 64 kilometres north of Newcastle in England. Surprisingly, the millipedes called ‘Arthropleura’ measured around 2.7 metres long (8.9 feet) and weighed around 50 kilograms, the discoverers noted in their study published in the Journal of the Geological Society. With the fossil being two-and-a-half feet long and dating back to about 326 million years, it is the largest and the oldest fossil ever discovered. ‘Complete fluke of a discovery’, says lead study author Dr. Neil Davies from Cambridge University’s Department of Earth Sciences and the paper’s lead author has called the findings a “complete fluke of a discovery”. The fossil was first discovered in January 2018 in a large block of sandstone that had fallen from a cliff to the beach. “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”, Davies added as per Cambridge University’s report. Interestingly, the findings suggest that these creatures roamed the Earth over 100 million years before the age of dinosaurs. With this discovery, these millipedes officially are the largest-known invertebrate animal of all time, a record previously held by ancient sea scorpions. The study suggested that Great Britain used to lay near the equator, millions of years ago, before the continents drifted apart to form the modern world map. As a result, the Northumberland area used to have a more tropical climate unlike the cool and wet weather associated with the region today, giving a thriving environment to these creatures. Moreover, the Cambridge experts revealed that this new specimen showed Arthropleura preferred open woodland habitats near the coast in contrast to the earlier claims suggesting their habitat in coal swamps. Further talking about the discovery and the scope of learning ahead, Davies said as per a Cambridge report- Finding these giant millipede fossils is rare, because once they died, their bodies tend to disarticulate, so it’s likely that the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew. However, he added that knowing everything about them is difficult as of now as they have not found a fossilised head. Shedding more light on its size, the study authors revealed that the creature must have had a high-nutrient diet. While the exact diet is not known, the experts reckoned that the millipedes might have fed on nuts and seeds available in the leaf litter or other invertebrates and smaller amphibians. The creatures crawled around Earth’s equatorial region for around 45 million years but went extinct due to uncertain reasons.