Arthropleura also lived here back then. Trackways from Arthropleura are often found in the slate stone layers between layers of coal in the mines here. Most of them are about a foot wide, two parallel lines of tiny feet on a big body.
I find some curiosities in the article, For example, two specimens from coal mines and one from a sandstone beach are not a huge sample to draw conclusions from, so I question whether Arthropleura "preferred" sandy beaches as the article states. I think it may have been more cosmopolitan than that, and lived in a variety of environments. When 2/3 of known samples come from former coal swamps, it's hard to draw the conclusion that they preferred to live somewhere else.
I also have to wonder how and why they worked "global warming" in there as the reason for Arthropleura's extinction. This area sat around the equator at that time due to continental drift, as did that area of England. The AVERAGE daily temperature here was 111 degrees Fahrenheit, and warming beyond that would have been a sight to behold, not to mention not attested to in the geological record... yet Arthropleura thrived under such conditions. Furthermore, COOLING leads to dryer conditions, not warming. Warming leads to moister, wetter conditions because the warm air holds more humidity than cold air does, Cooling, for example, is what led to the drier conditions and desertification of the Permian period.
It has been claimed that Arthropoleura was a vegetarian, living off detrius from the forest floor, rather than a carnivore as centipedes are today. That conclusion was drawn apparently from the pollen grains found in fossilized Arthropleura gut tracts. But again one, or even 6, specimens are not a huge sample to draw sweeping conclusions from. It may be that they were omnivorous, or that the pollen came from the gut of one of their victims instead.
A few years ago there was a British TV show called "Primeval", and Arthropleura was featured in one of the episodes of that series, battling to the death with Our Heros of the series after coming through one of the ubiquitous "time portals" that the show was based upon. That Arthropluera was a bit larger than the real thing, for dramatic effect I suppose, but was otherwise pretty accurate, as far as current science knows.
The ones here were estimated to be about 8 feet long, that one clocks in at about a foot longer than that.
The article mentions an overabundance of oxygen as the reason for insect gigantism in those days, then goes on to discount that theory saying this specimen lived before the oxygen peak -but that does not necessarily rule out overabundant oxygen as a contributing factor. Oxygen levels peaked at 32% in the late Carboniferous, but there had to be a lead-up to that level. I'm not sure what the levels were 326 million years ago, but I'm willing to bet they were still well above the current oxygen poverty levels of 21%.
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I find some curiosities in the article, For example, two specimens from coal mines and one from a sandstone beach are not a huge sample to draw conclusions from, so I question whether Arthropleura "preferred" sandy beaches as the article states. I think it may have been more cosmopolitan than that, and lived in a variety of environments. When 2/3 of known samples come from former coal swamps, it's hard to draw the conclusion that they preferred to live somewhere else.
I also have to wonder how and why they worked "global warming" in there as the reason for Arthropleura's extinction. This area sat around the equator at that time due to continental drift, as did that area of England. The AVERAGE daily temperature here was 111 degrees Fahrenheit, and warming beyond that would have been a sight to behold, not to mention not attested to in the geological record... yet Arthropleura thrived under such conditions. Furthermore, COOLING leads to dryer conditions, not warming. Warming leads to moister, wetter conditions because the warm air holds more humidity than cold air does, Cooling, for example, is what led to the drier conditions and desertification of the Permian period.
It has been claimed that Arthropoleura was a vegetarian, living off detrius from the forest floor, rather than a carnivore as centipedes are today. That conclusion was drawn apparently from the pollen grains found in fossilized Arthropleura gut tracts. But again one, or even 6, specimens are not a huge sample to draw sweeping conclusions from. It may be that they were omnivorous, or that the pollen came from the gut of one of their victims instead.
A few years ago there was a British TV show called "Primeval", and Arthropleura was featured in one of the episodes of that series, battling to the death with Our Heros of the series after coming through one of the ubiquitous "time portals" that the show was based upon. That Arthropluera was a bit larger than the real thing, for dramatic effect I suppose, but was otherwise pretty accurate, as far as current science knows.
The ones here were estimated to be about 8 feet long, that one clocks in at about a foot longer than that.
The article mentions an overabundance of oxygen as the reason for insect gigantism in those days, then goes on to discount that theory saying this specimen lived before the oxygen peak -but that does not necessarily rule out overabundant oxygen as a contributing factor. Oxygen levels peaked at 32% in the late Carboniferous, but there had to be a lead-up to that level. I'm not sure what the levels were 326 million years ago, but I'm willing to bet they were still well above the current oxygen poverty levels of 21%.
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Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’