Arthropleura

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Arthropleura
Fossil range: Silurian to Permian

A model of Arthropleura at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Myriapoda?
Class:	Arthropleuridea
Order:	Arthropleurida
Family:	Arthropleuridae
Genus:	Arthropleura

Arthropleura was a 2-3 metre (6-10 feet) long relative of centipedes and millipedes, native to the Upper Carboniferous of Nova Scotia, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (USA), and in Scotland. It was the largest known land invertebrate of all time, and would have had few predators.

Arthropleura evolved from crustacean-like ancestors in the Carboniferous, and was able to grow larger than modern arthopods, partly because of the high percentage of oxygen in the earth's atmosphere at that time, and because of the lack of large terrestrial vertebrate predators. It became extinct at the start of the Permian period, when the moist climate began drying out, destroying the rainforests of the Carboniferous, and allowing the desertification characteristic of the Permian. Because of this, oxygen levels in the atmosphere began to decline to more modest levels. None of the giant arthropods could survive the new dry, lower-oxygen climate.

Like its descendants, Arthropleura was a herbivore, and was covered in a thick tough armour-like skeleton. Even though it was not a carnivore, it had a very powerful bite.

Species of Arthropleura are:-

Arthropleura armata Jordan & Mayer [1].
Arthropleura moyseyii [2] and download the full version (pay site): fossils at Bickershaw, Lancashire, UK

Its tracks have the ichnotaxon name Diplichnites cuithensis and have also been found in the Cutler Group in El Cobre Canyon, New Mexico, USA.

[edit] In popular culture

An Arthropleura (right) depicted fighting a Proterogyrinus in Walking With Monsters.

Arthropleura was featured in the BBC series Walking With Monsters as well as in Prehistoric Park (2006). It was also used as the central time-shifted creature in the second episode of the ITV series Primeval (2007), although the production increased the Arthropleura to six meters in length, and gave it a venomous bite.