You have two legs. Cats and dogs have four. A spider has eight. Well, scientists just discovered an animal with the most legs ever. It has 1,306 legs!
The leggy creature is a millipede. In fact, the word millipede means “1,000 legs” in the Latin language. However, we’ve never actually found a millipede with that many legs before now. Scientists spotted this record-setting animal deep under the ground in Western Australia.
Bruno Buzatto is one of the scientists who found the millipede. “I was quite impressed with their sizes,” he told News-O-Matic. This millipede beats the previous record of the world’s leggiest animal — by more than 500 legs! “The longest one before was a in California,” Buzatto explained. That millipede has only 750 legs.
The name for the newly found 1,306-legged millipede is Eumillipes persephone. The word Eumillipes means “true millipede.” And the name Persephone comes from Greek . Persephone is a goddess who used to live on the surface but was forced underground. These millipedes likely once lived on the surface. At some point, they began to move deeper and deeper below ground.
Now this crawler lives about 200 feet (60 m) underground. Of course, no light reaches that deep. As a result, these millipedes don’t need to see. In fact, they don’t even have eyes! Instead, the millipedes use special antennas on their heads to feel their way around under the ground. As Buzatto explained: “They just use touch and smell.”
But why does this creature have so many legs? Buzatto said millipedes that live underground seem to be longer and have more legs. He believes more legs “give them force to push themselves forward through the soil.” This way, the millipedes can go deeper into the ground.
This record-setting millipede measured 3.75 inches (95 mm) long. Scientists found eight of them under the ground. Each one had a different number of legs. For example, one had 818 legs. Another had 998. No one knows how many of these worm-like creatures there are. “We can throw around guesses,” said Buzatto. “But it’s really wild guesses.”
Paul Marek helped study the leggy millipede. “These millipedes grow legs as they age — even after reaching adulthood,” explained the . Marek told News-O-Matic what that means: “So, it’s possible that there’s a leggier millipede out there.”
“Nature is always surprising you,” added Buzatto. “And things are always more incredible than you thought.”
Updated December 21, 2021, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Sufia Alam
