Arthropleura, the biggest bug ever known at up to 3.2m long, inhabited North America and Europe at a time when Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels surged, helping some plants and animals grow to gigantic proportions.
While its fossils have been known since 1854, a large gap has existed in the understanding of the creature because none of the remains had a well-preserved head.
The discovery in France of two Arthropleura fossils with intact heads has now remedied this, providing the anatomical details needed for scientists to classify it as a huge primitive millipede and determine it was not a predator, but rather a plant eater.
The fossils, hich were unearthed in Montceau-les-Mines, are of juvenile individuals that lived in a tropical climate and a swampy environment lush with vegetation.
While Arthropleura was this ecosystem’s behemoth, the fossils preserve young individuals just 4cm long.
The fossils showed Arthropleura’s head was roughly circular, with slender antennae, stalked eyes and mandibles fixed under it. It had two sets of feeding appendages, the first short and round, and the second elongated and leg-like.
The specimens each had 24 body segments and 44 pairs of legs — 88 legs in total. Based on its mouthparts and a body built for slow locomotion, the researchers said that Arthropleura was a detritivore like modern millipedes, feeding on decaying plants, rather than a predator like centipedes.
It could have served the same role in its ecosystem as elephants today or big dinosaurs like the long-necked sauropods in the past — “a big animal spending most of his time eating,” said paleontologist Mickael Lheritier of the Laboratory of Geology of Lyon at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science Advances.
“I think it is quite a majestic animal. I think its gigantism gives it a peculiar aura, like the aura of whales or elephants,” Lheritier said. “I love to imagine it as the ‘cow’ of the Carboniferous, eating during most of the day — but, of course, a cow with an exoskeleton and many more legs.”
Other examples of ancient arthropod gigantism included Meganeura, an eagle-sized dragonfly, and Pulmonoscorpius, a scorpion more than 1m long.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS