Technologue.idJakarta – Scientists have finally discovered the largest insect that has ever lived on Earth. By studying fossils, scientists believe that the insect, which lived 300 million years ago, could have grown up to 9 feet (2.6 meters) and weighed 100 pounds (50 kilograms).
Cited by the Independent, scientists studied insect fossils that were complete and well-preserved, even if they didn’t look “very cute”.
According to new research published Wednesday in Science Advances, the tip or head of the giant beast is a round bulb with two short bell-shaped antennae. In addition, there are two prominent, crab-like eyes, and a relatively small mouth that is used to grind leaves and bark.
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This animal was called Arthropleura, a type of arthropod, a group that includes crabs, spiders and insects with characteristics of modern centipedes and centipedes. “We found that the body was centipede-like, but the head was centipede-like,” said study co-author and paleobiologist Mickael Lheritier at Claude Bernard Lyon University in Villeurbanne, France.
The largest arthropleura may have been the largest insect that ever lived, although this is still debated. They may be second only to the extinct giant sea scorpions.
Researchers in Europe and North America have been collecting fragments and footprints of these giant insects since the late 1800s.
“We’ve been wanting to see what the head of this animal looked like for a long time,” said James Lamsdell, a paleobiologist at West Virginia University, who was not involved in the research.
To produce the head model, the researchers first used CT scanning to examine young fossil specimens embedded in rocks discovered in a French coalfield in the 1980s.
This technique allowed researchers to get “hidden details like parts of the head that are still embedded in the rock” without damaging the fossil, Lamsdell said.
“When you crush a rock, you don’t know which parts of the fragile fossil might be lost or damaged,” he said.
