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Arthropleura 8.5 ft. long relative of centipedes and millipedes native to the Late Carboniferous (340 - 280 million years ago) of what is now northeastern North America and Scotland. It is the largest known land invertebrate of all time.
(via lostbeasts)
Posted on September 5, 2012 via elegant buffalo with 1,009 notes
Source: elegantbuffalo
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“Joggins - Life in the Carboniferous” by Brian Choo
“A representation of the fauna of Canada’s World Heritage Joggins Fossil Cliffs. The temnospondyl Dendrerpeton chases a pair of early reptiles (Hylonomus) up a lycopod tree. The little microsaurian amphibian Asaphestera scuttles into the undergrowth. Behind them, the giant millipede-like arthropod Arthropleura forages unconcerned.”
And I have to add this Arthropleura reconstruction from the Museum of Natural History, Chemnitz:
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kodakowl: Pterygotus, I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish, but Arthropleura was the largest land invertibrate of all time.
Arthropleura had a flat, segmented body with bumpy ornamentation. It was an upper Carboniferous relative of centipedes and millipedes, but was not one of the two itself. It’s size may be attributed to two environmental conditions, a lack of terrestrial predators, and the immense concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere (which is why we can’t have giant bugs anymore, so those of you fearing the giant ant takeover, don’t worry, it can’t happen.) It is mostly known from fossil segments, but rare complete specimes have been found, and so have it’s long, sinuous trackways. It had many segmented legs (the legs had many segments,) which sets it apart from centipedes and millipedes. It has been found in OH, PA, IL, KA, NM, Canada, and Europe.
