Millipede - Evolution

Evolution

This class of arthropod is thought to be among the first animals to have colonised land during the Silurian geologic period. These early forms probably ate mosses and primitive vascular plants. The oldest known land creature, Pneumodesmus newmani, was a 1 centimetre (0.39 in) long millipede, and lived 428 million years ago. In the Upper Carboniferous (340 to 280 million years ago), Arthropleura became the largest known land invertebrate of all time, reaching lengths of up to 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in). Millipedes, centipedes, and other terrestrial arthropods attained very large sizes in comparison to modern species in the oxygen-rich environments of the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, and some could grew larger than one meter. As oxygen levels lowered through time, arthropods became smaller in size.