The largest bug that lived 300 million years ago was 2.60m long and weighed about 50kg – 2024-10-16 08:23:00

A fossil was found from the shell of its body, and its head was the result of a CT scan

As if the biggest buglived – a monster with a length of almost 2.60 and a weight of 50 kg with several dozen legs – was not terrifying enough, so scientists set out to imagine what the head of the extinct beast looked like, writes the Associated Press.

This is because many of the fossils of these creatures are headless shells that were left behind when they molted, emerging from their exoskeletons through the head opening as they grew larger.

The top of the giant bug is a round bulb with two short, bell-shaped antennae, two bulging crab-like eyes and a rather small mouth adapted for grinding leaves and bark, according to new research published in Science Advances.

Called Arthropleura, these are arthropods—the group that includes crustaceans, spiders, and insects—with characteristics of modern centipedes and millipedes.

“We found that it had the body of a millipede but the head of a centipede,” said study co-author and paleobiologist Michael Leritier of Université Claude Bernard Lyon in Villeurbanne, France.

The largest Arthropleura may have been the largest bug that ever lived, although there is still debate. They may be second only to the extinct giant sea scorpion.

Researchers in Europe and North America have been collecting fragments and prints of the huge bugs since the late 1800s.

“We’ve wanted 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 study.

To create a model of the head, the researchers first used computed tomography to examine fossils of fully intact juveniles embedded in rocks discovered in a French coal field in the 1980s.

This technique allowed the researchers to closely examine “hidden details like parts of the head that are still embedded in the rock” without tarnishing the fossil, Lamsdell said.

Juvenile fossil specimens are only about 6 centimeters in size and may have been a species of Arthropleura that did not grow to enormous size. But even so, the researchers said they’re close enough relatives to give an idea of ​​what the adults looked like — whether giant or less nightmarish in size — when they were alive 300 million years ago.