This 3-D reconstruction of a fossilized juvenile Arthropleura reveals details of the millipede’s head (green), such as its mouthparts and antennae. Lhéritier et al/Science Advances 2024
Science News is reporting that the head of Arthropleura has finally been found! Whether it's the largest arthropod that ever lived is debatable, but Arthropleura was a very large millipede that lived during the Carboniferous Period some 300+ million years ago. Oh, by the way, there is fossil evidence of these giants living in Illinois as part of the Mazon Creek biota.
Two newly discovered fossils are helping scientists wrap their heads around the anatomy of the largest arthropod of all time — 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 that included a head. “It was more than 100 years since we start trying to find a head. And now we finally have one,” says Mickaël Lhéritier, a paleontologist at Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in France.