# Scientists Have Identified the First ‘True’ Millipede - Real Title: Scientists Have Identified the First ‘True’ Millipede ## Highlights ### id260185213 millipedes can have over 1,300 legs > We always hypothesized that there would be a ‘true’ millipede discovered some day,” said Jackson Means, a myriapodologist at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. But the discovery of one with over 1,300 legs, almost double the previous leg count? “That was pretty astonishing.” - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jnyxkfspx8k5eknpx521r) ### id260185244 millipede legs help them move through soil > Because both millipedes live underground, having a lot of legs on a long, skinny body is likely adaptive in that environment: legs allow the animal to push themselves through the soil. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jq0n5arqh5t9y1xw7ptf9) ### id260185248 millipedes gain legs and segments throughout their life > Millipedes don’t hatch with this bounty of legs, they add them to their body over time— *Eumillipes persephone* hatches with only eight legs. The group of millipedes that *Eumillipes persephone* belongs to can add segments and legs to their bodies throughout their entire life, not just up to sexual maturity. (Other millipedes do stop adding legs at an earlier point in their lifespan.) - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jqbf6pzqsszgg0c5z0tkn) ### id260185251 centipedes are venomous carnivores > Millipedes and centipedes can be referred to interchangeably in conversation, but they are very different organisms. Centipedes are carnivores, and they capture prey and inject them with venom—this is why centipedes belong to the class *Chilopoda*, which means “lips legs.” The name comes from the “enlarged venomous fangs that evolved from the first pair of legs just behind the head,” Zahnle said. > > Centipedes are fast-running predators who kill their prey with poison claws,” said Henrik Enghoff, a curator of Myriapoda at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.” - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jqzx5dn0ndhx70hgs5ycb) ### id260185263 millipedes eat dead leaves Millipedes are docile detritivores who chew dead leaves. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jr5x84ydpgd1c5g4r2zm8) ### id260185274 millipedes were the first oxygen-breathing animals > Millipedes have been around for about [420 million years](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1467803909000887). They were the first known animal to breathe atmospheric oxygen, based on fossil evidence. Some extinct species were over 6 feet long and 1 foot wide. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jrcehrk98rjem788rcrjv) ### id260185321 millipedes use chemical defenses > Despite being docile, there is also evidence that millipedes were one of the first animals to produce chemical defenses, and the first to have external genitalia, Means said. One of those defenses is cyanide. One species called cherry millipedes releases hydrogen cyanide to fend off predators—a chemical [that can smell like](https://theconversation.com/scientists-at-work-capturing-beautiful-millipedes-in-ohio-30118) cherries (and sometimes almonds). - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9js1m1zhvnefv1sw7294sx) ### id260185332 some male millipedes care for their eggs > In at least one species, father millipedes exhibit a behavior called “parental care” which is rare in nature: He will curl his body around his eggs to protect them until they hatch. “I’ve seen neat examples of the father walking around with a clutch of eggs in his middle legs and walking with the front and the back legs kind of like a little like hunched over, like an inchworm,” Marek said. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jsdaj1dd7vk7m6g4k7r8m) ### id260185361 > By eating decaying vegetation, and sometimes fungi, that contain nutrients like carbon and nitrogen and simple sugars, they break down organic material into smaller bits so it can cycle through the environment. This essential process couldn’t happen without decomposers, and since a lot of native earthworms in the United States [have gone extinct](https://ecosystemsontheedge.org/earthworm-invaders/) as a result of introduced earthworms, millipedes are shouldering the weight of this task. > > Millipedes are like the little garbage men of the ecosystem that are doing the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting for us to have healthy ecosystems - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fq9jtv85ccg31f7czce5rb8e)