Name: Arthropleura
(Rib joint).
Phonetic: Ar-thro-plur-ah.
Named By: Jordan & Meyer - 1854.
Synonyms: Arthropleura affinis,
Arthropleura moyseyi, Arthropleura zeilleri..
Classification: Arthropoda, Myriapoda,
Arthropleurida, Arthropleuridae.
Species: A. armata (type), A.
cristata, A. fayoli, A. maillieuxi, A. mammata.
Diet: Uncertain, but fossil material suggests it
may have been herbivorous.
Size: Up to 2.6 meters.
Known locations: Eastern North America. Scotland.
Time period: Carboniferous to early Permian.
Fossil representation: Several specimens and
fossilised track ways, mouth unknown.
Arthropleura
is a contender for the biggest arthropod of all time, and like with
other arthropods of the Carboniferous period, this gigantism has been
attributed to the greater abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere of this
time. Many fossilised track ways have also been preserved with some
even showing Arthropleura moving around trees as it
made its way
through the Carboniferous forests.
Because
the mouth of
Arthropleura has never been recovered it is has been
difficult to say
with certainty if it was a herbivore or carnivore. Instead scientists
have had to look at the digestive tract and coprolites of this animal,
which have been found to contain spores from plants like ferns,
something that is not seen in a carnivorous animal suggesting it was a
herbivore.
Arthropleura
disappears from
the fossil record during the early Permian when the climate dried and
the lush forests were replaced with arid and desert like environments.
Not only did the oxygen content become reduced from the lack of oxygen
producing vegetation, the dry conditions would not have suited
Arthropleura because of its crustacean ancestry.
Crustaceans as a
whole need moist conditions to stop themselves from drying out which is
why today you either see them in aquatic environments, or the shaded
areas of the ground such as amongst the leaf litter where the ground
cannot get dried out by the sun.
For another surprisingly large arthropod, check out the eurypterid Jaekelopterus.
Further reading
- Evidence of pteridophyte–arthropod interactions in the fossil record.
- Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 86B: 133–140. - A. C.
Scott, W. G. Chaloner & S. Paterson - 1985.
- The giant Arthropleura trackway Diplichnites
cuithensis from the
Cutler Group (Upper Pennsylvanian) of New Mexico". Geological Society
of America Abstracts with Programs 36 (5): 66. - Adrian P. Hunt,
Spencer G. Lucas, Allan Lerner & Joseph T. Hannibal - 2004.
- The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly
discovered Arthropleura remains (Serpukhovian Stainmore Formation,
Northumberland, England). - Journal of the Geological Society. 179 (3).
- Neil Davies et al - 2021.
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