As children we all learned that there was no such thing as a true MILLIpede, because none of them actually had the requisite thousand legs. The previous standing record-holder was a California species with up to 750 legs. This one found deep underground in Australia has 1350 legs.
Among the earliest animals to breathe atmospheric oxygen and with some extinct species that grew to two meters in length, millipedes have lived on this planet for more than 400 million years... the millipede order Polyzoniida includes ca. 70 species with a distribution on all continents except Antarctica. Some of its members exhibit parental care of eggs, others ooze chemical defenses containing alkaloids that are sequestered by poison frogs, and some species roll into a ball for protection. Hatchlings emerge from the egg with four pairs of legs, and continuously add segments during development for an indeterminate period of time, even after adulthood...Surface climatic conditions fluctuated considerably across hundreds of millennia, but underground conditions probably remained comparatively stable. Troglophilic species often represent ancient vestiges of formerly widespread lineages that now persist in subterranean refugia.
Lots more information in the Nature source article.
Addendum:
Photo explained at Historically Sound.
"The segment is about 75cm long, leading scientists to believe its entire body could have measured about 2.7 metres long and weighed 50kg.
ReplyDeleteThe remains of the creature date from the Carboniferous period, more than 100m years before the age of dinosaurs."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/21/largest-ever-giant-millipede-fossil-found-on-uk-beach