An extinct millipede the length of a car once roamed northern England | Hacker News Reader

An extinct millipede the length of a car once roamed northern England

npr.org

70 pointsgeox43 comments

The interesting points:

- Giant millipedes are usually conjectured from fossilized tracks, but this is an actual three-foot section of the millipede (or its cast-off shell).

- This millipede undermines the theory that giant bugs existed in the past due to higher levels of atmospheric oxygen, because it's older than the peak oxygen level. (Based on the image at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event#The_earl... , it probably lived during stage 4 )

> "they might be growing larger to develop ... predatory attributes," Davies says

Oh... oh dear

It makes sense to me. Millipedes and other similar things could develop into the "large predator" niche because there was nothing already filling that space.

We are worried about bringing back the mammoth (of course, while still killing everything else off) but I cant help but think a saddled up car-sized millipede could get you around town like nothing else.

It's the length of a car, not the size of a car.

Still the mental image is entertaining (but mostly horrifying).

And not even that. FTA: “a creature thought to be three times as long — measuring 2.7 meters long (nearly 9 feet)”

A fiat 500 Cinquecento, at 2.97 m, already is longer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500), and that’s a very small car, by current standards. The new Fiat 500 is 3.55 m, almost 20% longer. It’s more like a microcar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcar) or the electric Citroen Ami

As to weight, it indeed is lighter, much lighter. FTA: “and weighing about 50 kilograms”

And it's a British car, so half the length of an American one.

Ill ride it ... my bike still smaller.

Does it come in Racing Green?

You just need two, one for each foot.

Dont need to make any other sound ... I wonder if millipedes make sound ... I hate splitting lanes with people on harleys since they still think making noise is useful. A pissed off millipede tho ...

I feel like the megafauna that were eradicated by homo sapiens are fair game to try to resurrect. I mean, they're only gone because cro magnons got carried away slaying furry dragons.

I hear ya, its just unfortunate, but come on, a giant rideable millipede? Id trade my zero in less than that many seconds

I think it'd be cool..

..but practicality ran the horse out from that role.

Compared to your zero the millipede would have... outputs.

It does make you wonder if the near ubiquitous dragon myth originated from megafauna hunts.

I thought it was dinosaur fossils

Isn't discovery of giant dinosaur fossils common before the Renaissance?

there are other theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flight_of_Dragons_(book)

I have a hard time believing the disappearing of the mega fauna is solely due to homo sapiens: if it was the case there should be a few pockets of them remaining in the world.

For example in western Europe bears were hunted to extinction before the middle ages, but you can still find bears in Russia and in the US.

And why would you think we would like to resurect them ? (sorry for considering myself part of the species H. Sapiens) We killed them on purpose.

May his passing cleanse the world

I’d rather have pterodactyls so we can fly places in an environmentally friendly way.

I miss the flintstones cartoons from when I was a child.

>50 kilo millipede

If it was as fast as the furry things we get around here in the spring that would have been truly horrifying.

I'm looking forward to a modern remake of 1954's classic film Them! featuring these car-sized millipede's sudden & mysterious appearance in the tranquil English countryside, and how flamethrowers along with high voltage electric pylons can save the day.

I saw a movie on netflix this week about giant bugs. Quite enjoyable. "Love and Monsters". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2222042/

I enjoyed this book about the Carboniferous and the late Paleozoic ice ages.

https://www.amazon.com/Carboniferous-Giants-Mass-Extinction-...

I wonder if creatures of this size are the reason we as a species still have such a fear of insects and spiders. 300 million years ago our very ancient ancestors could have easily been eaten by just about anything.

Probably more because of the venom. Even a small spider can deliver a fatal bite, especially when you don't have modern medical care.

Also today in the news there is a second story regarding Millipedes and the discovery in Australia of a species with actual leg counts over 1000.

IANACT (I am not a conspiracy theorist) but what are the odds of there being two Millipede stories in one day ?

[1] https://www.npr.org/2021/12/20/1066017155/finally-scientists...

Am I the only one who lost it at the artist rendering that looked like it was done in MS paint? Truly, someone made a valiant effort, but it was... something else.

Well, he tried to do it in fortnite but the extension pack was too expensive. Paint, if you get used to it before MS changes completely the UI (again) is pretty nice. You need a bit of patience thought.

Seems like it should be called a pede.

One pes, two pedes.

I don't get what you're going for. You think a three-meter protomillipede had only one foot? It's clearly segmented. And one segment of a modern millipede supports four feet if I remember correctly.

I think they're going for one millipede being one one-thousandth of a full pede.

This is more of a megapede!

The name is a reference to the number of legs, not size.

Then kilopede.

I'm glad to hear that it's finally been defeated.

> The gigantic Pulmonoscorpius from the early Carboniferous reached a length of up to 70 cm (2 ft 4 in).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous

Yes, yes it is.

Years ago I read a book "Micro", published posthumously by Michael Crichton. This book describes what happens when people are downsized and things like millipedes are big enough to pose a serious risk of death.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_(novel)

"Scientists stubbled upon the fossilized remains of an ancient millipede the length of a small car dating from before the time of the dinosaurs."

Setting aside the fact that the scientists apparently forgot to shave that morning, I was unaware that there were small cars dating from before the time of the dinosaurs.

Pedantic, maybe, but I can't help but think this could have been worded better.

"Scientists stuMbled upon fossilized remains, dating from before the time of the dinosaurs, of an ancient millipede the length of a small car."

Just because this discussion is about ancient animals and not about ancient cars, should not be an issue.

Some things are better left unearthed. Who knows what other terrors lie beneath.

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