First true millipede discovered--new species has 1,306 legs
Scientists in Australia have discovered a new species of millipede that lives 200 feet underground, has no eyes, and scurries around on 1,306 legs.
They named it Eumillipes persephone after Persephone, the Greek goddess and queen of the underworld. But this new invertebrate deserves a crown for another reason: It has the most legs of any creature on Earth, living or dead.
In fact, the competition isn’t even close. The largest specimen of the new species, a female, was less than four inches long, yet easily beat out the previous world-record holder, Illacme plenipes, a millipede that lives near Silicon Valley, California, and has 750 legs.
This means that E. persephone is the world’s first true millipede, since the word millipede means “thousand feet” in Latin, according to a new study published December 16 in the journal Scientific Reports.
While the new animal’s leg count is unprecedented, it may not even be the limit of what’s possible. (Read about the discovery of a glowing millipede.)
Many millipede species begin life with just eight legs, but as they shed their skin and add new body segments, or rings, they can keep developing more legs, says study leader Paul Marek, a millipede expert at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
“So there’s probably an individual out there with more rings and more legs, and that’s kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around,” says Marek, also a National Geographic Explorer.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/first-true-millipede-discovered-with-thousand-legs?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Animals_20211216::rid=2D7EBD8232363870D75E126868635ACF
Picture and cool video at link.
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