Millions of years ago , whenhuge dinosaursstomped across Earth , niggling creepy-crawly crawlies were scurrying at their foot . Now , researchers have break a brilliantly preserved example – a tiny millipede frozen in time incase in vibrant amber .
The 8.2 - millimeter beastie , which was discovered in Myanmar , is so singular that scientists have had to escape from up the millipede family tree , giving the ancient arthropod its very own suborder . It lived 99 million years ago during the Cretaceous catamenia , an era when mosasaurs swam the sea and tyrannosaurs stalk the land .
The specimen is the first fossil of a millipede belong to the orderCallipodidaever found and is little than its relatives from the same era . It also sheds light on when Callipodida first came to be , suggesting that this group of arthropod must have evolved at least 100 million long time ago .
The leggy critter has been namedBurmanopetalum inexpectatumand is described in the journalZooKeys . Burmanopetalumrefers to Burma ( now Myanmar ) where it was get hold , andinexpectatumis Latin for “ unexpected ” .
“ It came as a great surprise to us that this animal can not be placed in the current milliped sorting , ” order wind generator Professor Pavel Stoev in astatement . “ Even though their universal appearance has stay on unaltered in the last 100 million years , as our planet underwent striking changes several times in this period , some structural traits in Callipodida line of descent have evolved importantly . ”
To read their specimen , the scientists used 3D X - re microscopy , which allowed them to look at the millipede ’s physical structure in impressive detail . The lucky amber allowed it to keep back feature film that would be lost in normal fossils .
Amazingly , the piece of amber in which the specimen was encased really contained a aggregate of 529 millipede fossil . B. inexpectatum , however , was the one that stood out , being the only appendage of its order within this mishmash of millipedes .
" The entire Mesozoic Era – a span of 185 million year – has until now only been taste for a twelve species of millipedes , but new findings from Burmese gold are chop-chop changing the picture,”saidstudy cobalt - author Dr Thomas Wesener . “ In the preceding few years , intimately all of the 16 living orders of millepede have been identified in this 99 - million - year - old amber . The beautiful anatomical data presented by Stoevet al.show that Callipodida now link up the club . "
“ We were so prosperous to find out this specimen so well uphold in gold ! ” added Stoev .
