{"id":150709,"date":"2024-10-09T18:10:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/the-largest-arthropod-to-ever-live-finally-has-a-head\/"},"modified":"2024-10-09T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T18:10:11","slug":"the-largest-arthropod-to-ever-live-finally-has-a-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/09\/the-largest-arthropod-to-ever-live-finally-has-a-head\/","title":{"rendered":"The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/100924_jb_giant-millipede-head_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head\u00a0\" title=\"The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head\u00a0\" \/><\/div> \r\n<br><br><div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n<p>Two newly discovered fossils are helping scientists wrap their heads around the anatomy of the largest arthropod of all time \u2014 a millipede that grew longer than a king-sized bed and lived between 346 million and 290 million years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Arthropleura<\/em> was discovered in 1854, but no one had ever managed to find a fossil that included a head. \u201cIt was more than 100 years since we start trying to find a head. And now we finally have one,\u201d says Micka\u00ebl Lh\u00e9ritier, a paleontologist at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text rich-text--with-sidebar\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.email-conversion {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  color: white;\n  margin-top: 50px;\n  background-image: url(\"\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.jpg\");\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"rich-text embedded-conversion-content is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n#dynamic-wrapper {\n  border: 1px solid #ffcccb;\n  background-image: url(\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/032624_sb_space-sugar_feat.jpg?w&#61;800&amp;ssl&#61;1\");\n  background-size: cover;\n  background-position: center center;\n  padding: 20px;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion {\n  padding: 20px;\n  background:rgba(0,0,0, 0.5);\n  color: white;\n}\n\n#dynamic-conversion h2 {\n  color: white;\n}\n\np.has-text-align-center a {\n  color: white !important;\n  text-decoration: none;\n  font-weight: bold;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"dynamic-wrapper\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"dynamic-conversion\" class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Tell us about your Science News experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Help us improve by taking our 15-question reader survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/aside>\n\n\n<p>Micro CT scans of the fossils, unearthed from present-day France, reveal never-before-seen details about the giant millipede\u2019s anatomy, including its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adp6362\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">antennae, eyes, mandibles and other feeding appendages<\/a>, Lh\u00e9ritier and colleagues report October 9 in <em>Science Advances<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until now, scientists had assumed that <em>Arthropleura<\/em> would have had a head more like its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/millipede-most-legs-eumillipes-persephone\">modern millipede relatives<\/a> (<em>SN: 12\/21\/21<\/em>). However, the fossils reveal a more intermediate state in the lineage\u2019s evolution, Lh\u00e9ritier says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Arthropleura <\/em>has the body of a millipede, like for example, with two pairs of legs per [body] segment, but also the head of a centipede,\u201d he says, noting that the mouthparts are particularly centipedelike. Still, anatomical observations as well as phylogenomic data places <em>Arthropleura <\/em>squarely in the millipede camp, Lh\u00e9ritier\u2019s team contends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the specimens provide a wealth of information about <em>Arthropleura<\/em>, there\u2019s a lot left to learn about this mighty millipede, including what it might have eaten and whether it walked on land, underwater or was capable of both. For instance, the new fossils also reveal that <em>Arthropleura<\/em> had stalklike eyes, rather like a crab, says Lh\u00e9ritier, and that alone suggests that the creature may have had a lifestyle that involved water.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, scientists still don\u2019t know whether both sexes grew to enormous sizes, or how long it took juveniles to grow into the full largesse that made <em>Arthropleura<\/em> a world-record holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who knows what the next new finding might reveal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/largest-arthropod-head\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two newly discovered fossils are helping scientists wrap their heads around the anatomy of the largest arthropod of all time \u2014 a millipede that grew longer than a king-sized bed and lived between 346 million and 290 million years ago. Arthropleura was discovered in 1854, but no one had ever managed to find a fossil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/100924_jb_giant-millipede-head_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[100467,6828,3493,1767],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150711,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150709\/revisions\/150711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}