Image source, Reuters
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This luing was found nearly 60 meters underground in a mining area in western Australia.
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Scientists in Australia have discovered an incredibly long luing, with more legs than any animal known.
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Luing or millipede This pale color has about 1,300 feet on its body which has an unusual length of 99 millimeters.
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The creature, named Eumilipes Persephone, was found nearly 60 meters underground in a mining area in western Australia.
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The previous record holder for the longest luing came from a species in California at 750 feet.
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“Never before has a luing been found to have more than 1,000 feet, though literally millipede means ‘a thousand feet’,” Virginia Tech entomologist Paul Marek, lead author of the research published in the journal Scientific Reports, told Reuters.
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In Indonesian, luing is also known as millipede.
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The animal’s scientific name, Eumilipes Persephone, means ‘a true thousand feet’.
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Persephone is taken from Greek mythology, the name of a princess from the underworld.
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Just like other underground animals, this luing has no eyes and is also colorless. Scientists estimate that he lived on mushrooms.
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One adult female in the study had 1,306 feet and the other had 998 feet. Two adult males have 818 feet and 778 feet, respectively.
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Luing first appeared more than 400 million years ago. It is currently estimated that there are about 13,000 species of luing.
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“I think it’s a really amazing animal, an evolutionary marvel,” said co-author Bruno Buzatto, a purebred biologist with Bennelongia Environmental Consultants in Perth, Australia.
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“This animal exhibited the most extreme elongation ever found in the luing, which was the first animal to successfully conquer land,” he said.
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