Millipedes 'as big as cars' once roamed Northern England, fossil find reveals:
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."
Unlike the cool and wet weather associated with the region today, Northumberland had a more tropical climate in the Carboniferous Period, when Great Britain lay near the Equator. Invertebrates and early amphibians lived off the scattered vegetation around a series of creeks and rivers. The specimen identified by the researchers was found in a fossilized river channel: it was likely a molted segment of the Arthropleura's exoskeleton that filled with sand, preserving it for hundreds of millions of years.
The fossil was extracted in May 2018 with permission from Natural England and the landowners, the Howick Estate. "It was an incredibly exciting find, but the fossil is so large it took four of us to carry it up the cliff face," said Davies.
More information: The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly discovered Arthropleura remains (Serpukhovian Stainmore Formation, Northumberland, England), Journal of the Geological Society (2021). DOI: 10.1144/jgs2021-115J
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @05:46PM (9 children)
"As big as a large surfboard" would seem more appropriate, given the dimensions (0.5 x 2.4m) and weight of 50 kg.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:33PM (6 children)
They probably meant European car.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:54PM
Ha ha skinny people!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:59PM (1 child)
Yogu Brandon!
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:01PM
Make that
Yugo Brandon!
(Score: 2) by tizan on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:20PM (2 children)
50 cm wide car....hmm...I think the Dutch for example will find it hard to put 1 person sitting in it.
Even a bobsleigh might be wider than this.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:15PM (1 child)
Motorcycle?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday December 22 2021, @07:31AM
At 50kg, more like a large bicycle.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:34AM
Still I mean, OMG! A frikkin millipede that's bigger and heavier than me?! Eww eww eww!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @05:07PM
Austin Mini
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:51PM (5 children)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:08PM (1 child)
24.2 and 17.9. Anything else while I'm here? Handjob? Do your laundry?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:38PM
Do the laundry and the dishes first, to soften those callouses.
(Score: 1) by Michael on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:43PM (1 child)
I'd hazard a guess that a moderately sized individual could be comfortable today if nothing too strenuous was required of it. 326 million years ago the o2 level was low to mid twenties. Even at its peak 250ish mya, o2 didn't top thirty. If oxygen was the limiting factor for their maximum size (may not be), they probably would have stunted growth and be generally more lethargic and fragile than usual in our atmo, but unlikely to outright die.
If these sorts of things were around 350mya, those ones would have had a couple percent less oxygen then we have today, so it's even possible they wouldn't even notice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @02:14AM
Today's insects are limited in size mostly by oxygen, but that doesn't mean these were. They probably just didn't move very fast. Their evolution and extinction just doesn't line up with the changing oxygen levels.
In the time when these were alive, the only land animals were arthropods, like them. There were a few primitive amphibians, that could barely come out of the water. Those early amphibians were big and fierce, but limited. More like crocodiles than wolves or tigers.
Once reptiles turned up, and land animals could go wherever they wanted, these giant millipedes became food.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:54AM
asking for a friend?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:57PM (1 child)
How many hit dice?
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:17PM
It's the paralyzing bite that gets ya.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday December 21 2021, @06:59PM (7 children)
The idea that millipedes that large existed give me irrational? fear and sweats. I'm thankful that our atmosphere and temperature hopefully completely eliminate the possibility of such a creature existing alongside us??
Also, giant sea scorpions. That's concerning. I do regularly dive. The idea of giant scorpions underwater is terrifying.
Nature is so interesting: terrifying and beautiful.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @07:12PM
We've more or less converted Nature into Disneyland in the modern world. You don't have to do anything except deal with sullen employees while corporate flashes neon garbage at us trying to exctract every nickel from our pockets. Bring back the fucking monsterpedes.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bmimatt on Tuesday December 21 2021, @08:16PM
Don't worry, they've since exported these to Australia, along with a bunch of other terrifying wildlife.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:39PM (2 children)
Fear and sweats? How about free transportation [youtu.be]! What's it going to do, flip back over and bite you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @10:43PM (1 child)
Your worms are worth more after they've had their mandibles removed. Our startup demandiblizing service in North London works as cheaply as you'll find!
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:50AM
Judging by the dental standards in England, I think you should focus on the human inhabitants first.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @02:32AM
Don't worry.
These days they don't get much bigger than this:
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3126/3238425636_ee7e4b81a8_o.jpg [staticflickr.com]
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Wednesday December 22 2021, @05:56PM
If you like a good scifi novel, consider giving Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky a read. If giant creepy crawlies are concerning to you, then it might be right up your alley ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @08:28PM (3 children)
Wot? More Anglocentric front page articles? Didn't Neil deGrasse Tyson have these critters in the Cosmos reboot? And now you have made crafoo himself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @09:05PM (2 children)
The joke's on you. Neil deGrasse Tyson is Anglo. The Grassy bit came from his grandmother, the French sheep. Her father disowned her, because she was the black sheep of the family.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 21 2021, @11:42PM (1 child)
> French
> Anglo
Pick one
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @03:57AM
north america. anglo/french/german/spannish/african/asian..
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday December 22 2021, @05:38PM
My first thought was "Ah yes, more fuel for my darkest nightmares."
My second thought was "I wonder if we could ride them? Get a little saddle and Yee-haw we're going to town."