The largest bug that lived 300 million years ago was 2.60m long and weighed around 50kg

2024-10-16 08:23:00

A fossil was found from the shell of his body, and his head was the result of a CT scan

As if the biggest bugliving – a monster with a length of almost 2.60 and a weight of 50 kg with several dozen legs – was not scary enough, so scientists set out to imagine what the head of the extinct beast looked like, writes the Associated Press.

This is because many of the fossils of these animals are headless shells left behind when they molted, emerging from their skeletons through the skull opening as they grew. more.

The top of the giant bug is a round bulb with two short, bell-shaped antennae, two bulging crab-like eyes and a relatively small mouth adapted for grinding leaves and bark, according to new research published in Science Advances.

Called Arthropleura, these are arthropods—the group that includes crustaceans, spiders, and insects—with characteristics of modern centipedes and millipedes.

“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ have found that the body was a millipede but the centipede, said the study co-author and paleobiologist Michael Leritier from Université Claude Bernard Lyon in Villeurbanne, France.

Arthropleura may be the biggest bug that ever lived, although there is still debate. They may be second only to the extinct giant sea scorpion.

Researchers in Europe and North America have been collecting fragments and prints of the giant bugs since the late 1800s.

“We want to see how the head of this animal looked for a long time,” said James Lamsdell, a paleobiologist at West Virginia University who was not involved in the study.

To create a model of the head, the researchers used computed tomography for the first time to examine intact juvenile fossils embedded in rocks discovered in a French coalfield in the 1980s.

This technique allowed researchers to closely examine “hidden details like parts of the head still embedded in the rock” without destroying the fossil, Lamsdell said.

Juvenile fossil specimens are only about 6 centimeters in size and may be species of Arthropleura that have not grown to enormous size. But even so, the researchers said they are close enough relatives to give an idea of ​​what the adults – whether gigantic or nightmarish in size – looked like when they lived 300 million years ago.