Researchers named the underground animal Eumillipes persephone in honor of the Greek goddess of the underworld
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThe researchers called the animal underground Eumillipes persephone in honor of the Greek goddess of the underworld
Millipede, so to speak ... or maybe not. The first ever millipede with more than 1.000 legs (to be precise, 1.306) was discovered in Western Australia: the pet was found at a depth of sixty meters in a mining area in the Eastern Goldfields region. Precisely because it spends its life underground, the animal was renamed by scientists Eumillipes persephone, in reference to the Greek goddess of the underworld Persephone. Up to now the animal with the most legs of all (improperly defined "millipede") was the Illacme plenipes, a native of central California and equipped with 750 legs.
The new species of millipede was discovered by chance by a group of environmental biologists who were conducting an underground environmental impact assessment and who described this "encounter" as incredibly lucky and unexpected. The species has a long, threadlike body comprising up to 330 segments, with short legs and a cone-shaped head - useful for making its way into the ground. Like other animals that live in the constant darkness of the subsoil, he has a pale complexion (because he is never exposed to the sun's rays) and is completely blind.
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According to experts, this centipede it probably evolved in length to be able to move underground: The greater the length of the body, the greater the force to move the ground and push forward. Consider that another very common species in Australia, the Portuguese millipede, has "only" 25 segments - a much shorter length than the newly discovered animal. The team has so far found eight Eumillipes persephone at three different depths, ranging from 15 to 60 meters.
In Australia, there are over 2.000 species of millipedes already known, even if their number could actually exceed 4.000 different specimens: a large chunk of Australian biodiversity, in fact, has not yet been described, and the human-induced environmental destruction is putting unknown species to extinction even before the scientists have the opportunity to discover and describe them. All this biodiversity could be a valuable aid for our survival: many of the millipedes and underground inhabitants could function as antimicrobials against pathogens that have a lot of antimicrobial resistance.
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Fonti: Nature / The Guardian
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