A BULKY centipede-like creature that died out some 300 million years ago is
the largest arthropod yet discovered. Palaeontologists in Germany who examined a
partial fossil unearthed near Jena in the east of the country say it would have
reached a length of 2.3 metres and a breadth of 50 centimetres.
The researchers calculated the beast鈥檚 size by looking at the proportions of
smaller, related species. 鈥淎s only remnants were available for analysis, we had
to extrapolate its dimensions,鈥� says J枚rg Schneider, a palaeontologist at
Freiberg University. It belongs to the genus Arthropleura, but the
creature has not yet been given a species name.
The largest modern arthropods are marine spider crabs, which have spindly
legs up to 1.5 metres long. However, their bodies have a diameter of around 50
centimetres, so their bulk is much less than that of the mammoth
Arthropleura.
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Schneider says the creature inhabited estuarine marshes, probably feeding on
amphibians and smaller invertebrates. Why it became extinct is unclear, but a
drying of its habitats and the rise of reptiles鈥攚hich would have competed
for prey or even preyed on it鈥攃ould have been to blame.