Fossil discovery unfortunately alerts us to 8-feet long millipedes
They lived 326 million years ago, which as far as we're concerned, is not long ago enough
Scientists in England are gearing up to publicly display their “fluke of a discovery” next year—the fossilized carapace of a 22-inch-wide, 8-foot-long ancient millipede that was “as big as a car” and weighed approximately 110-pound, as reported over at CNN.
The giant ass bug was what’s known as an Arthropleura, which creepily scuttled around the planet around 326 million years ago, a full 100 million years before dinosaurs showed up.
“This is definitely the biggest bug that ever lived,” confirmed University of Cambridge lecturer, Neil Davies, to CNN via email yesterday—something they probably said proudly, and without a hint of abject disgust or terror.
The discovery of the third known Anthropleura remains came back in 2018, completely by accident, after a large piece of sandstone broke off a cliffside in Northumberland and broke open upon landing on a beach below it.