{"id":114852,"date":"2024-10-16T16:35:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T09:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114852"},"modified":"2024-10-16T16:35:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T09:35:45","slug":"we-finally-know-what-the-head-of-this-giant-9-foot-bug-looked-like-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114852","title":{"rendered":"We Finally Know What The Head of This Giant 9-Foot Bug Looked Like : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>For 170 years, most of what we&#8217;ve known of the largest bug to ever live on Earth came from discarded headless casings with far too many legs.<\/p>\n<p>Well-preserved fossils from France have now finally revealed the details of these surreal giants&#8217; heads, allowing an international team of researchers to locate this ancient creepy crawly&#8217;s place in the tree of life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We discovered that it had the body of a millipede, but the head of a centipede,&#8221; University Claude Bernard Lyon paleontologist Micka\u00ebl Lh\u00e9ritier <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2024-10-scientists-biggest-bug-earth.html\">told<\/a> Christina Larson at the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests the giant bug, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arthropleura\"><em>Arthropleura<\/em><\/a>, which crawled across equatorial forests during the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Carboniferous\">Carboniferous<\/a> period up to 346 million years ago, belonged to a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crown_group\">group of species<\/a> that makes it like an ancestral cousin to today&#8217;s millipedes and centipedes.<\/p>\n<p>The team analyzed heads that belonged to two juvenile creatures who were only around 3 cm (1 inch) long. But oxygen levels in the Carboniferous were higher than today, allowing arthropods like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Meganeuropsis\">dragonflies<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/trilobite-fossil-might-have-had-its-eye-amputated-by-a-giant-sea-scorpion\">sea scorpions<\/a> to grow ginormous.<\/p>\n<p><em>Arthropleura<\/em> were no exception, with some species reaching up to 2.6 meters long (8.5 feet) \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/fossil-reveals-giant-car-sized-millipedes-once-roamed-england\">about the length of a small car<\/a> \u2013 making them contenders for the largest bug known to have existed. Sea scorpions currently run a close second, with a length of <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.gr.2024.08.005\">up to 2.5 meters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_140673\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-140673\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/10\/ArthropleuraAncientMillipedeAndCentipedeRelative-e1728973222242.jpg\" alt=\"We Finally Know What The Head of This Extinct Car-Length Bug Looked Like\" width=\"642\" height=\"480\" class=\"wp-image-140673 size-full\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-140673\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram of Arthropleura. (Lh\u00e9ritier et al., <em>Science Advances<\/em>, 2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since the Carboniferous, <a href=\"https:\/\/forces.si.edu\/atmosphere\/02_02_06.html\">oxygen levels have dropped<\/a> from 35 percent of the atmosphere to today&#8217;s 21 percent. This physiologically restricts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/586863\">the size of today&#8217;s arthropods<\/a> \u2013 the phylum including insects, spiders, and crabs \u2013 due to the lungless way they breathe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Arthropleura<\/em> left distinctive tracks and outgrown exoskeletons behind as they crawled across what&#8217;s now North America and Europe. First discovered in 1854, there has been much confusion over their relationships with other species \u2013 it was <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.ads9192\">even proposed<\/a> they might be related to crustaceans.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/X-ray_microtomography\">micro-CT scans<\/a> of the well-preserved juveniles from Montceau-les-Mines have firmly solved the mystery \u2013 revealing hidden details still embedded in the rocks without damaging the specimens.<\/p>\n<p>Like millipedes, <i>Arthropleura<\/i> have seven-segmented antennae, and mouthparts with a separated base plate and chewing lobe, though other features of their mouthparts are more like centipedes. But they lack the<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forcipule\"> venomous pincers<\/a> of centipedes and have stalked \u2013 possibly compound \u2013 eyes not found in the other two groups.<\/p>\n<p>These findings support recent <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ympev.2022.107621\">genetic evidence<\/a> that millipedes and centipedes are closely related, and <em>Arthropleura<\/em> are related to the ancestor of both groups (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Myriapoda#Myriapod_relationships\">Pectinopoda<\/a>). Previous analysis of their <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Myriapoda\">physical features<\/a> had grouped millipedes and centipedes separately.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The stalked eyes found in Montceau specimens could point toward a semi-aquatic lifestyle,&#8221; the team <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.ads9192\">writes in their paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The now-known mouthparts of <em>Arthropleura<\/em> suggest that despite their intimidating appearance and size, these massive crawlers were harmless detritivores \u2013 recyclers of dead organic matter.<\/p>\n<p>This research was published in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adp6362\">Science Advances<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/we-finally-know-what-the-head-of-this-giant-9-foot-bug-looked-like\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For 170 years, most of what we&#8217;ve known of the largest bug to ever live on Earth came from discarded headless casings with far too many legs. Well-preserved fossils from &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=114852\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}