Fossil Data Research Articles

Postglacial phylogeography, admixture, and evolution of red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) in Eastern North America.

Climate change is a major evolutionary force that can affect the structure of forest ecosystems worldwide. Red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) has recently faced a considerable decline in the Southern Appalachians due to rapid environmental change, which includes historical land use, and atmospheric pollution. In the northern part of its range, red spruce is sympatric with closely related black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), where introgressive hybridization commonly occurs. We investigated range-wide population genetic diversity and structure and inferred postglacial migration patterns and evolution of red spruce using nuclear microsatellites. Moderate genetic diversity and differentiation were observed in red spruce. Genetic distance, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses identified two distinct population clusters: southern glacial populations, and the evolutionarily younger northern populations. Approximate Bayesian computation suggests that patterns of admixture are the result of divergence of red spruce and black spruce from a common ancestor and then introgressive hybridization during post-glacial migration. Genetic diversity, effective population size (Ne) and genetic differentiation were higher in the northern than in the southern populations. Our results along with previously available fossil data suggest that Picea rubens and Picea mariana occupied separate southern refugia during the last glaciation. After initial expansion in the early Holocene, these two species faced a period of recession and formed a secondary coastal refugium, where introgressive hybridization occurred, and then both species migrated northward. As a result, various levels of black spruce alleles are present in the sympatric red spruce populations. Allopatric populations of P. rubens and P. mariana have many species-specific alleles and much fewer alleles from common ancestry. The pure southern red spruce populations may become critically endangered under projected climate change conditions as their ecological niche may disappear.

Campanian conifer woods from Estancia La Aurora, Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Patagonia Argentina

Conifer fossil woods from the Campanian Puntudo Chico Formation were studied. The specimens were collected at the Estancia La Aurora, Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The parautochthonous petrified woods, which have well-preserved anatomy, were transported a short distance from their original habit and deposited within fluvial channels. The use of transmitted light and scanning electron microscopes allowed to identify the diagnostic characters. This paper corroborates the presence of Brachyoxylon currumillii and the first mention of Cupressinoxylon sp. cf. C. artabeae in the Puntudo Chico Formation. The new specimens of Podocarpoxylon mazzonii confirm that this taxon is a common and abundant element in the Cretaceous to Eocene floristic assemblages. Based on 51 growth-rings, the mean ring width, and Mean Sensitivity (MS) were 1.68 mm (0.62–2.92 mm) and 0.33 (0.27–0.40) respectively. These fossil trees indicate that they developed under temperate and humid conditions, with slightly sensitive from year to year with a terminal event representing a cessation or retardation of cambial activity. Other paleoclimatic proxies including geological and fossil data indicate that the Puntudo Chico Formation was deposited under temperate-warm and humid conditions, with some semi-arid events.

Reconstructing the origin and early evolution of the snake brain.

Snakes represent one-eighth of terrestrial vertebrate diversity, encompassing various lifestyles, ecologies, and morphologies. However, the ecological origins and early evolution of snakes are controversial topics in biology. To address the paucity of well-preserved fossils and the caveats of osteological traits for reconstructing snake evolution, we applied a different ecomorphological hypothesis based on high-definition brain reconstructions of extant Squamata. Our predictive models revealed a burrowing lifestyle with opportunistic behavior at the origin of crown snakes, reflecting a complex ancestral mosaic brain pattern. These findings emphasize the importance of quantitatively tracking the phenotypic diversification of soft tissues-including the accurate definition of intact brain morphological traits such as the cerebellum-in understanding snake evolution and vertebrate paleobiology. Furthermore, our study highlights the power of combining extant and extinct species, soft tissue reconstructions, and osteological traits in tracing the deep evolution of not only snakes but also other groups where fossil data are scarce.

Divergence time estimates for the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1α) reveal an ancient emergence of animals in low-oxygen environments.

Unveiling the tempo and mode of animal evolution is necessary to understand the links between environmental changes and biological innovation. Although the earliest unambiguous metazoan fossils date to the late Ediacaran period, molecular clock estimates agree that the last common ancestor (LCA) of all extant animals emerged ~850 Ma, in the Tonian period, before the oldest evidence for widespread ocean oxygenation at ~635-560 Ma in the Ediacaran period. Metazoans are aerobic organisms, that is, they are dependent on oxygen to survive. In low-oxygen conditions, most animals have an evolutionarily conserved pathway for maintaining oxygen homeostasis that triggers physiological changes in gene expression via the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIFa). However, here we confirm the absence of the characteristic HIFa protein domain responsible for the oxygen sensing of HIFa in sponges and ctenophores, indicating the LCA of metazoans lacked the functional protein domain as well, and so could have maintained their transcription levels unaltered under the very low-oxygen concentrations of their environments. Using Bayesian relaxed molecular clock dating, we inferred that the ancestral gene lineage responsible for HIFa arose in the Mesoproterozoic Era, ~1273 Ma (Credibility Interval 957-1621 Ma), consistent with the idea that important genetic machinery associated with animals evolved much earlier than the LCA of animals. Our data suggest at least two duplication events in the evolutionary history of HIFa, which generated three vertebrate paralogs, products of the two successive whole-genome duplications that occurred in the vertebrate LCA. Overall, our results support the hypothesis of a pre-Tonian emergence of metazoans under low-oxygen conditions, and an increase in oxygen response elements during animal evolution.

Fossils in a Digital Age

Digital libraries are a powerful tool for preserving and disseminating information in a technology-driven world. Providing options for housing non-traditional information, such as three-dimensional (3D) data, digital libraries also address barriers (e.g., geographic location and physical space) that affect traditional libraries. While there are certainly still barriers that may prevent users from accessing and utilizing digital content, digital libraries offer ways of preserving, housing, and disseminating non-traditional information that physical libraries cannot. Within the anthropological community, digital libraries can serve as a method of housing 3D fossil data. There are unique challenges and barriers associated with studying fossils that digital libraries help to break down. Through the preservation and dissemination of 3D fossil data, researchers across the globe can work with fossil data without the concerns associated with handling fragile fossils. However, such 3D digital libraries are not without challenges. While there are clear standards and metadata schemas (e.g., RDA and DCMI) for digital libraries containing traditional materials, no such standardization exists for digital libraries containing 3D data. As such, metadata requirements and elements for existing 3D digital libraries are inconsistent and may lack important details about the data, which can compromise functionality. This paper explores trends and challenges that digital libraries containing 3D data experience and highlights best-practice solutions for future 3D digital libraries to overcome these challenges.

A Community-Driven Strategy for Addressing Fossil Taxonomy Challenges

Taxonomy has long been a cornerstone issue in the paleontological collections community, especially as digitization has enabled us to share data at a global scale. Communities of practice such as the Paleo Data Working Group (PDWG, Krimmel et al. 2021) have made concerted efforts to understand and evaluate challenges with the taxonomic information published via fossil occurrence records (Little et al. 2021, Little et al. 2022). Since 2020, PDWG has been leading discussions to define the nuances of challenges associated with fossil taxonomy, to look at the landscape of cyberinfrastructure tools available to tackle these challenges, and to develop community guidelines. This work has led to a deeper understanding of the full range of challenges surrounding the use of fossil taxonomy, from local practices and systems to representation at the data aggregator level. Here we share our initial strategy for tackling challenges with fossil data, particularly taxonomy, centered on developing a reusable framework for assessing and addressing issues so that data can be made more discoverable and usable for transformative and translational research. An essential element of this approach is the coordination of efforts across stakeholder communities. Through these collaborations, we ultimately seek to improve systems for handling and curating taxonomic data, increase the quality and discoverability of taxonomic data presented by aggregators, and better integrate data provided by fossil occurrence records into the research lifecycle. The required coordination will be driven through the development of a partner network from across the global bio- and geo- science data ecosystem. This network is composed of representatives with a variety of perspectives and roles, including participation from Catalogue of Life, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), as well as paleontology collections professionals (led by PDWG), informaticians, researchers, and other end-users. Integrating the existing PDWG community of practice into this larger network allows us to learn from work already underway in the landscape. In addition, recognizing that the paleo community is not alone in these challenges, we believe that a successful strategy for this network is to create processes and envision solutions that can be adapted by other disciplines with similar needs. Our strategy underscores the need for the combined efforts of both community engagement and evaluation of the existing technical landscape. Through this work we aim to establish an enhanced network of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable; Wilkinson et al. 2016) and research-ready fossil data, improving the support for and quality of fossil taxonomy data along the way.

Estimating clade‐specific diversification rates and palaeodiversity dynamics from reconstructed phylogenies

Abstract Understanding palaeodiversity dynamics through time and space is a central goal of macroevolution. Estimating palaeodiversity dynamics has been historically addressed with fossil data because it directly reflects the past variations of biodiversity. Unfortunately, some groups or regions lack a good fossil record, and dated phylogenies can be useful to estimate diversification dynamics. Recent methodological developments have unlocked the possibility to investigate palaeodiversity dynamics by using phylogenetic birth‐death models with non‐homogeneous rates through time and across clades. One of them seems particularly promising to detect clades whose diversity has declined through time. However, empirical applications of the method have been hampered by the lack of a robust, accessible implementation of the whole procedure, therefore requiring users to conduct all the steps of the analysis by hand in a time‐consuming and error‐prone way. Here we propose an automation of Morlon et al. (2011) clade‐shift model with additional features accounting for recent developments, and we implement it in the R package RPANDA. We also test the approach with simulations focusing on its ability to detect shifts of diversification and to infer palaeodiversity dynamics. Finally, we illustrate the automation by investigating the palaeodiversity dynamics of Cetacea, Vangidae, Parnassiinae and Cycadales. Simulations showed that we accurately detected shifts of diversification although false shift detections were higher for time‐dependent diversification models with extinction. The median global error of palaeodiversity dynamics estimated with the automated model is low, showing that the method can capture diversity declines. We detected shifts of diversification for three of the four empirical examples considered (Cetacea, Parnassiinae and Cycadales). Our analyses unveil a waxing‐and‐waning pattern due to a phase of negative net diversification rate embedded in the trees after isolating recent radiations. Our work makes it possible to easily apply non‐homogeneous models of diversification in which rates can vary through time and across clades to reconstruct palaeodiversity dynamics. By doing so, we detected palaeodiversity declines among three of the four groups tested, highlighting that such periods of negative net diversification might be common. We discuss the extent to which this approach might provide reliable estimates of extinction rates, and we provide guidelines for users.

Molecular phylogeny of mega-diverse Carabus attests late Miocene evolution of alpine environments in the Himalayan–Tibetan Orogen

The timing, sequence, and scale of uplift of the Himalayan–Tibetan Orogen (HTO) are controversially debated. Many geoscientific studies assume paleoelevations close to present-day elevations and the existence of alpine environments across the HTO already in the late Paleogene, contradicting fossil data. Using molecular genetic data of ground beetles, we aim to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of the HTO, focusing on its southern margin (Himalayas, South Tibet). Based on a comprehensive sampling of extratropical Carabus, and ~ 10,000 bp of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA we applied Bayesian and Maximum likelihood methods to infer the phylogenetic relationships. We show that Carabus arrived in the HTO at the Oligocene–Miocene boundary. During the early Miocene, five lineages diversified in different parts of the HTO, initially in its southern center and on its eastern margin. Evolution of alpine taxa occurred during the late Miocene. There were apparently no habitats for Carabus before the late Oligocene. Until the Late Oligocene elevations must have been low throughout the HTO. Temperate forests emerged in South Tibet in the late Oligocene at the earliest. Alpine environments developed in the HTO from the late Miocene and, in large scale, during the Pliocene–Quaternary. Findings are consistent with fossil records but contrast with uplift models recovered from stable isotope paleoaltimetry.

Fluctuating climate and dietary innovation drove ratcheted evolution of proboscidean dental traits

Identification of the selective forces that shaped adaptive phenotypes generally relies on current habitat and function, but these may differ from the context in which adaptations arose. Moreover, the fixation of adaptive change in a fluctuating environment and the mechanisms of long-term trends are still poorly understood, as is the role of behaviour in triggering these processes. Time series of fossils can provide evidence on these questions, but examples of individual lineages with adequate fossil and proxy data over extended periods are rare. Here, we present new data on proboscidean dental evolution in East Africa over the past 26 million years, tracking temporal patterns of morphological change in relation to proxy evidence of diet, vegetation and climate (aridity). We show that behavioural experimentation in diet is correlated with environmental context, and that major adaptive change in dental traits followed the changes in diet and environment but only after acquisition of functional innovations in the masticatory system. We partition traits by selective agent, showing that the acquisition of high, multiridged molars was primarily a response to an increase in open, arid environments with high dust accumulation, whereas enamel folding was more associated with the amount of grass in the diet. We further show that long-term trends in these features proceeded in a ratchet-like mode, alternating between directional change at times of high selective pressure and stasis when the selective regime reversed. This provides an explanation for morphology adapted to more extreme conditions than current usage (Liem’s Paradox). Our study illustrates how, in fossil series with adequate stratigraphic control and proxy data, environmental and behavioural factors can be mapped on to time series of morphological change, illuminating the mode of acquisition of an adaptive complex.

Climate shifts orchestrated hominin interbreeding events across Eurasia.

When, where, and how often hominin interbreeding happened is largely unknown. We study the potential for Neanderthal-Denisovan admixture using species distribution models that integrate extensive fossil, archaeological, and genetic data with transient coupled general circulation model simulations of global climate and biomes. Our Pleistocene hindcast of past hominins' habitat suitability reveals pronounced climate-driven zonal shifts in the main overlap region of Denisovans and Neanderthals in central Eurasia. These shifts, which influenced the timing and intensity of potential interbreeding events, can be attributed to the response of climate and vegetation to past variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet volume. Therefore, glacial-interglacial climate swings likely played an important role in favoring gene flow between archaic humans.

Fossilization can mislead analyses of phenotypic disparity.

Analyses of morphological disparity can incorporate living and fossil taxa to facilitate the exploration of how phenotypic variation changes through time. However, taphonomic processes introduce non-random patterns of data loss in fossil data and their impact on perceptions of disparity is unclear. To address this, we characterize how measures of disparity change when simulated and empirical data are degraded through random and structured data loss. We demonstrate that both types of data loss can distort the disparity of clades, and that the magnitude and direction of these changes varies between the most commonly employed distance metrics and disparity indices. The inclusion of extant taxa and exceptionally preserved fossils mitigates these distortions and clarifies the full extent of the data lost, most of which would otherwise go uncharacterized. This facilitates the use of ancestral state estimation and evolutionary simulations to further control for the effects of data loss. Where the addition of such reference taxa is not possible, we urge caution in the extrapolation of general patterns in disparity from datasets that characterize subsets of phenotype, which may represent no more than the traits that they sample.

Biogeography: The origin and spread of bee lineages

Where and when bees originated and how they dispersed and diversified across ancient continents has remained ambiguous. A new study that combines phylogenetics with fossil data reconstructs the origin and diversification of bees across geological time and space.

Fossil leaves reveal drivers of herbivore functional diversity during the Cenozoic

Herbivorous arthropods are the most diverse group of multicellular organisms on Earth. The most discussed drivers of their inordinate taxonomic and functional diversity are high niche availability associated with the diversity of host plants and dense niche packing due to host partitioning among herbivores. However, the relative contributions of these two factors to dynamics in the diversity of herbivores throughout Earth's history remain unresolved. Using fossil data on herbivore-induced leaf damage from across the Cenozoic, we infer quantitative bipartite interaction networks between plants and functional feeding types of herbivores. We fit a general model of diversity to these interaction networks and discover that host partitioning among functional groups of herbivores contributed twice as much to herbivore functional diversity as host diversity. These findings indicate that niche packing primarily shaped the dynamics in the functional diversity of herbivores during the past 66 my. Our study highlights how the fossil record can be used to test fundamental theories of biodiversity and represents a benchmark for assessing the drivers of herbivore functional diversity in modern ecosystems.

The evolutionary history of bees in time and space

Bees are the most significant pollinators of flowering plants. This partnership began ca. 120 million years ago, but the uncertainty of how and when bees spread across the planet has greatly obscured investigations of this key mutualism. We present a novel analysis of bee biogeography using extensive new genomic and fossil data to demonstrate that bees originated in Western Gondwana (Africa and South America). Bees likely originated in the Early Cretaceous, shortly before the breakup of Western Gondwana, and the early evolution of any major bee lineage is associated with either the South American or African land masses. Subsequently, bees colonized northern continents via a complex history of vicariance and dispersal. The notable early absences from large landmasses, particularly in Australia and India, have important implications for understanding the assembly of local floras and diverse modes of pollination. How bees spread around the world from their hypothesized Southern Hemisphere origin parallels the histories of numerous flowering plant clades, providing an essential step to studying the evolution of angiosperm pollination syndromes in space and time.

Climate Change during Cretaceous/Paleogene as a Driving Force for the Evolutionary Radiation of Physical Dormancy in Fabaceae

Physical dormancy (PY) due to a water-impermeable seed/fruit coat is one of the characteristic features of many species of Fabaceae; however, the timing and context of the evolution of this trait are poorly understood. In this investigation, fossil and molecular data are used to constrain the timing of the evolution of PY. The phylogenetic reconstruction programs GB-to-TNT and BEAUTi/BEAST are used to create chloroplast gene-based (rbcL and matK) phylogenies of taxa with well-represented fossil records. PY and non-dormancy are mapped to the terminals of the phylogeny, and ancestral states are reconstructed using parsimony. The initial evolution of PY in Fabaceae is reconstructed to have occurred sometime in the interval between divergence from Polygalaceae (late Campanian) to the diversification of crown-group Fabaceae (late Paleocene) when Fabaceae is known to have undergone multiple whole genome duplication (WGD) events across the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary. As in Nelumbo, another taxon with PY, Fabaceae may have developed PY in association with climatic change and WGD across the K/Pg boundary. The evolution of PY in association with WGD at the K/Pg boundary is an intriguing hypothesis that requires further investigation.

Mapping the Late Miocene Pyrenean Forests of the La Cerdanya Basin, Spain

The Late Miocene palaeofloras of the La Cerdanya Basin represent a unique look into the Pyrenean Miocene forested areas of the Iberian Peninsula at a time when the European warm and humid climate was experiencing progressive cooling and aridification. Macrofossils (leaves, seeds, fruits and cones) and miospores from several outcrops revealed the composition and abundances of the different plant species present in the area during the Tortonian and early Messinian geological stages (ca. 11.1–5.7 Ma). These fossils were found in the sediment deposits of an ancient lake system situated in the southwestern part of the basin. Previous studies indicated the presence of highly diversified mixed mesophytic forests with broadleaved evergreen and deciduous trees and conifers. However, the spatial structure and distribution of these forest types remains unknown. In the present work, the biomization method was used to infer the different late Miocene vegetation types from the basin. The extent of these vegetation types was calculated using a methodology for mapping vegetation units from fossil and biome data. While previous attempts at mapping Miocene vegetation units had a broad geographical scale, the present work aimed to map the extent of the vegetation units at a small scale, recreating local and specific vegetation changes in an abrupt basin. Results showed similarly high scores between for four biome types, which represent the different types of vegetation that coexisted in the basin during the Tortonian and the early Messinian: warm-temperate evergreen broadleaf and mixed woodlands (WTEM biome), temperate deciduous forests (TEDE) and cool conifer forests (COMX and COEG). Their extent was depicted in two vegetation maps, which account for differences in palaeoaltitude and palaeoclimate. These forests occupied different vegetation belts, which shifted upwards and downwards with climatic variations and the progressive uplift of the Pyrenees during the late Miocene. Azonal riparian forests and wetland vegetation occupied the more humid areas in the centre of the basin. Nonetheless, dry conditions during the early Messinian and decrease in the lake area degraded the wetland environments, which were partially replaced by broadleaved evergreen mixed woodlands.

Mayfly larvae preservation from the Early Cretaceous of Brazilian Gondwana: Analogies with modern mats and other Lagerstätten

The Crato Formation paleoentomofauna is noticeable for its high abundance, diversity and morphological fidelity, so the preservational approach of the Ephemeroptera larvae fossils becomes relevant, since they are aquatic insects living in a lacustrine environment of one of the major terrestrial ecosystems of the Early Cretaceous in the Gondwana supercontinent. The mayfly larvae fossils were analyzed under a stereomicroscope and a scanning electron microscope with coupled x-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX) for morphological, textural and geochemical purposes. The microfabric analysis confirms the most recent hypothesis that the main factor responsible for the preservation of the Crato Formation fossils was the influence of the microbial mats on the fossilization process. The microscopic signatures left by the mats occur in the insect’s cuticle and internal parts, represented by micro cracks and wrinkles, micro spheres, filaments and mineralized EPS. These features have been compared in light with deposits containing Quaternary microbial mats in the Vermelha Lagoon and its associated salt pans, in Brazil. Also, we discussed our results with taphonomic data of other mayfly larvae fossils from the Lagerstätten La Huérguina (Spain) and Yixian (China) Formations, specifically in relation to the taphonomic settings regarding these Early Cretaceous ephemeropterans. This study corroborates to the idea of the fundamental role of the microbial mats in the exquisite preservation of the Crato Formation invertebrate fossils, with an approach that permits some fundamental paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic inferences for the Aptian of the Araripe Basin, in Brazil.

A combined palaeomodelling approach reveals the role as selective refugia of the Mediterranean peninsulas

The northern Mediterranean reptiles and amphibians show contrasting biogeographic histories during the Plio-Pleistocene. The influence of European climate changes on the evolution of the biogeographic ranges of taxa with a rich fossil record is determined herein combining different proxies to obtain well-supported palaeoclimatic scenarios. Ecological Niche Modelling through the ensemble modelling approach was used to reconstruct the climatic niche of selected reptile and amphibian genera, combining modern occurrences with seven independent bioclimatic variables. The obtained model was then projected on past scenarios using fossil data to crosscheck the validity of the climatic explanation for the selective extirpations. Palaeobotanical proxies and the hypsodonty of mammals were used to reconstruct the humidity pattern of the last million years in the studied area. The climate of the Italian Peninsula during the Last Glacial Maximum was proved herein to be unsuitable for many reptile taxa, which persisted in this area until the Early or Late Pleistocene, whereas they survived till the present day in the Iberian and/or Balkans peninsulas. On the contrary, all the proxies agree that Italy was comparably more humid than the other peninsulas during the Pliocene and Pleistocene, therefore allowing the prolonged survival of amphibian taxa (including the still living Salamandrina and Speleomantes), which became extinct or extirpated elsewhere in Europe. An intensification of the conservation efforts concerning amphibians, particularly sensitive to the global climate change, is recommended in the Italian Peninsula, which acted as an amphibian refugium for Europe due to its peculiar climatic history.

RETRACTED: Reconstructing past vegetation based on fossil and modern pollen data in Sougna mountain (Western Rif mountains - Northern Morocco)

The process of quantifying and reconstructing past vegetation changes is a crucial step towards comprehending the dynamics of human-environment interactions throughout time. In this study, we present a reconstruction of the vegetation cover of the Sougna mountain (Western Rif Mountain) over the last 6000 yr based on multivariate statistical analysis (cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling, NMDS) of 31 modern pollen samples, and detailed fossil pollen record. The integrated approach, used in this study was able to identify and differentiate six distinct modern vegetation communities. Moreover, the analysis linked fossil pollen records with these modern vegetation communities as their analogues. The information on the contemporary vegetation cover of the modern pollen sites was used to determine the past vegetation changes of the fossil pollen site in the Sougna mountain. The vegetation changes estimated from this analysis reveal a higher degree of landscape openness than what was initially indicated by the fossil pollen percentages. The results of this study demonstrate a marked decline in forest ecosystems during the last millennium, indicating a significant transformation in vegetation over time. Additionally, the analysis indicates that some species have diminished their distribution range and relocated to more suitable environments. The methodology employed in this study, which combines fossil pollen data with modern pollen data and vegetation in a single NMDS analysis, permits reconstruction of the past vegetation by identifying statistically their modern analogues.

Poisonous, Venomous, or Harmless?

Millipedes and centipedes were among the first animals to inhabit the earth. Their fossil record dates from the late Silurian period 430 million years ago. Their common names, derived from Latin, mean 1000 feet and 100 feet, respectively. Until 2021, when a new species of millipedes with 1306 legs was discovered, no millipede had 1000 legs. 1 Marek P.E. Buzatto B.A. Shear W.A. Means J.C. Black D.G. Harvey M.S. et al. The first true millipede-1306 legs long. Sci Rep. 2021; 1123126 Crossref Scopus (9) Google Scholar Millipedes have 2 pairs of legs per body segment (Figure 1). Centipedes have 1 pair of legs per body segment, and many centipedes have >100 legs (Figure 2). All centipedes also have modified legs on both ends. The first pair of centipede legs serves as claws or pincers (forcipules) for restraining victims and injecting venom, and the terminal pair (mating claspers or genital forceps) serves in reproduction. Figure 2The house centipede Scutigera coleoptrata has 15 pairs of long, delicate legs, which enable it to speed across floors, walls, and ceilings. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Photographer: Filip Vidinovski. Public domain, no copyright permission required. Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File.House_centipede_Scutigera_coleoptrata_on_the_wall.tif. View Large Image Figure Viewer Download Hi-res image