Fossil of a giant millipede alive 326 million years ago found on a beach in the UK

Virgin Radio

22 Dec 2021, 13:23

Credit: Getty

Credit: Getty

Researchers have come across the fossil of a millipede the size of a car that used to inhabit Northern England nearly 326 million years ago. 

The scariest thing? It would have been a hunter.

The creature, scientifically known as Arthropleura, was thought to have lived during the Carboniferous Period, which was around 100 million years before Dinosaurs inhabited the earth. 

When the Arthropleura roamed England, the country looked a little different from how it does now. For starters, it was a lot closer to the equator, so had a tropical climate- nothing like the rainy weather we’re used to. 

The fossil is the third of its kind to be discovered but is by far the oldest and largest, weighing 50kg and reaching 2.7 metres in length.

Researchers made the discovery on a beach in Howick, Northumberland and it was first spotted in 2018 when a large block of sandstone fell onto Howick Bay. 

Dr. Neil Davies from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences and lead author of a paper on the fossil, said: “It was a complete fluke of a discovery.

“The way the boulder had fallen, it had cracked open and perfectly exposed the fossil, which one of our former PhD students happened to spot when walking by.”

According to the experts, the creature was found by what would have been a river, and it’s possible the fossil is of its exoskeleton that was shed and preserved by the sand rather than its body. 

Dr. Neil Davies added: “Finding these giant millipede fossils is rare, because once they died, their bodies tend to disarticulate, so it’s likely that the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew.

“That the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew.

“We have not yet found a fossilised head, so it’s difficult to know everything about them.”

What we do know is, before the giant millipede went extinct around 45 million years ago, it had around 32 to 64 legs (gross) and lived on a diet of nuts, seeds and smaller creatures.

The fossil was removed with the permission of Natural England and the owners of Howick estate and apparently took four men to move.

It was taken to Cambridge for analysis and will be going on display in Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum in the new year.

Results have been reported in the Journal of the Geological Society.

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