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An astonishing digital reconstruction gives a remarkable look at a new species of centipede that ran under the feet of dinosaurs.
It was found in 99 million year old Burmese amber and the 3D model was used to study the anatomy of the creature of 8.2 mm (0.3 inches).
Comparing the model with live centipedes, the experts found that the well – preserved specimen was the earliest fossil ever known in the order of millipedes, Callipodida.
In fact, the fossil is so different from live centipedes that researchers have been forced to create a whole new suborder to define it.
The researchers created a detailed three-dimensional model of the animal in order to study its finest details, superbly preserved in amber (photo).
Pavel Stoev, from the National Museum of Natural History of Bulgaria, has teamed up with his colleagues Thomas Wesener and Leif Moritz, both of the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Germany, to analyze this beautifully preserved fossil.
The millipede, found preserved in 99 million-year-old amber from the Noije Bum mine in the Hukawng Valley, north of Myanmar, measures 8.2 millimeters long, being smaller than all the members of his family who live today.
Because amber preserves animals exceptionally well, the specimen contains details that would not normally be present in a fossil sample.
To analyze the centipede, the researchers used a three-dimensional imaging technique called X-ray microscopy to perform a series of image slices in the fossil specimen.
They then assembled the data from these images into a three-dimensional model of the creature as a whole, which allowed them to study it in detail.
This allowed them to confirm, by comparison with other known centipede species, that their fossil was the oldest known member of a centipede order called Callipodidaand the first fossil of this order ever found.
An order is an intermediate level category in the taxonomic classification in life, broader than subordinates, families, genera and individual species.
In addition, the recently discovered centipede species is so different from other members of the Callipodida that a new suborder, the Burmanopetalidea, was to be created to classify it.
This is a rather rare event, as only a few new millipede subordinates have been created in the last five decades.
"We were so lucky to find this specimen so well preserved in amber!" said Professor Stoev.
"We were very surprised that this animal could not be classified in the current classification of centipedes," said Professor Stoev.
The discovery of this new species within Callipodida suggests that this centipede order must have evolved at least 100 million years ago.
"Even though their overall appearance has remained unchanged over the past 100 million years, as our planet has undergone profound changes several times during this period, certain morphological traits of the Callipodida lineage have evolved considerably."
"We had the opportunity to examine more than 400 amber stones containing centipedes," added Thomas Wesener, co-author of the journal and zoological conservator.
The specimen was loaned to researchers from Patrick Müller's private collection in Käshofen, West Germany, which is the third largest assembled assembly of Burmese Amber carrying animals in the world.
The millipede, found preserved in 99 million-year-old amber from the Noije Bum mine in the Hukawng Valley, north of Myanmar, measures 8.2 millimeters long – smaller than all the members of his family who live today.
The millipede was originally found preserved in 99 million-year-old amber from the Noije Bum mine in the Hukawng Valley, north of Burma (photo).
& # 39; A large number of [the amber samples] are now deposited at the Koenig Museum in Bonn, so that scientists from around the world can study them, "added Dr. Wesener.
Looking at amber, the researchers were surprised to find that the centipede they had studied was far from being the only trapped and preserved in this deposit.
Instead, the creature was found alongside 529 other centipedes, although it is the only one of its order.
It was this surprise that prompted the team to baptize the centipede. Burmanopetalum inexpectatum.
In Latin, the name of the species & # 39;inexpectatum& # 39; mean & # 39; unexpectedly.
In the meantime, the name of the genre, & # 39;Burmanopetalum& # 39; is a reference to the country in which it was discovered – Myanmar, which formerly called Burma.
"The entire Mesozoic era – a period of 185 million years – has so far been sampled only for a dozen species of millipedes," said Greg Edgecombe, expert in fossil arthropods at the Natural History Museum in London, not involved in the study. .
He adds, "But new discoveries of Burmese amber are rapidly changing the game."
"In recent years, almost every 16 live centipede orders have been identified in this amber of 99 million years."
The complete results of the study were published in the journal ZooKeys.
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