Neil Davies/Cambridge University
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Climate change caused Arthropleura to compete for food and eventually lose.
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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Researchers in the UK have discovered the exoskeleton fossil of the largest arthropods that ever lived. Similar Centipede giant, fossil it is almost as long as a car and probably roamed the earth during the Carboniferous period. That is between 359 million and 299 million years ago.
Ancestors Centipede This terrifying creature, known as Arthropleura, was previously known to scientists. But the discovery of the exoskeleton fragment fossil the new one confirms that these ancient invertebrates were larger than thought.
Fossil Arthropleura, about 326 million years old, was found inside a fragmented sandstone block on a beach in Northumberland, England. The segment is about 75 centimeters long, while the original creature is estimated to have been 2.6 meters long and weighed about 50 kilograms. The results are reported in Journal of the Geological Society.
“This would have been the largest animal on land in the Carboniferous Period,” said researcher Neil Davies, a geologist at the University of Cambridge. Although the researchers had predicted that Arthropleura had the potential to grow to such an extreme size, they were still surprised by this finding.
According to Davies, the beach in Northumberland wasn’t a famous place for fossil. So, they were lucky to find it by accident.
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