Arthropleura

[squawking]

Arthropleura was an eight-

No, no, no.

Just imagine one of these things just fucking hitting you with a stinger right in the neck about yay thick.

They represent a completely different era of marine life, when the arthropods could grow up to monstrous sizes without any real competition.

Arthropleura was a 1,000-foot-long 2.6-meter-long creature that consumed decomposing plant matter and lived during the Carboniferous Period.

This gigantic tracking animal wandered the beaches and forests of ancient England, feeding on decomposing plant matter and leaving huge marks on the earth.

During the Carboniferous Period, extensive tropical forests acted like the lungs of the Earth, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing huge amounts of oxygen.

Scientists estimate that during that time, there was between 5 and 10% more oxygen in the atmosphere and this abundance of oxygen is one of the main reasons why Arthropleura could reach such a size.

Another factor was the lack of competition.

With fewer predators and competitors who could challenge it, this gigantic thousand-feet could be allowed to be slow and heavy, limiting itself to open its way, eating through the ancient forests.

Maybe if Clay didn't eat so much mammoth, he'd have more articulations.

So the inclusion of the Ice Age greats make this collection, although we're missing Scat, Scrat the squirrel, right? Oh, but hang on, we do have Scute here, the Arthropleura.

Did I even say that correctly? I was trying to figure out where this guy comes from.

Is, does he fit in with the Ice Age? He really fits in his own thing.

But there are other ones that are bigger.

So for example, um, the Arthropleura, which are the, like, giant centipede guys, could be about, like, six feet long.

Wow.

Ah.

This was a time of great transition, as land ecologies were rapidly transforming with new types of plants, like giant tree-sized lycophytes and the earliest gymnosperms, as well as early variations of the unique vertebrate tetrapods.

The world's developing terrestrial ecologies were populated by all kinds of Paleozoic arthropods, like the two-foot-long scorpion Pulmonoscorpius, enormous myriapods like the giant eight-foot-long millipede Arthropleura, the titanic Meganeura and griffinflys, an older cousin lineage related to modern dragonflies, and all manner of spiders, roaches, and proto-mayflies.

The Carboniferous Period is known for its tropical climates and extensive forest biomes, but these did not appear all at once.

The early Carboniferous was actually a bit more uncomfortable.