Arthropleura was an ancestor to centipedes and millipedes.
It could reach more than eight feet (2.4 m) in length, and the fatter creatures
could be several feet wide—think, for a moment, of something like that brushing
up against your leg. It was so massive that despite being an invertebrate it
probably had very few predators, and it is by far the largest invertebrate
species ever unearthed.
Arthropleura lived from the Carboniferous to the early
Permian period—throughout what is now North America and Scotland—around 300
million years ago. Strangely, even though its monstrous form would have allowed
it to prey on most anything, Arthropleura was entirely herbivorous (as shown by
the fossilized remnants of its stomach). It wouldn’t have taken any magic to
resize this bug for James’ giant peach.
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