Millipedes, so people often mention the name of smallish reptiles, jointed, and has a row of legs a lot. The arthopoda type animal is one that is often found in parts of Indonesia, India, South Africa and several other countries.
But recently, scientists stunned by the discovery of a unique new species of millipedes in a cave in California. As quoted by LiveScience on Wednesday, October 26, 2016, the male-sex arthopoda has a number of legs and genitals of different animals like.
A new species of millipede (Illacme tobini) with about 414 legs and four 'penises' was discovered in a cave in Sequoia National Park in California. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1fMICM) |
If the millipedes in general have about 700 feet, these findings have only 414 and 4 of which also can be converted into the penis. The animal found in the marble caves known as Lange Cave, located in Sequoia National Park, California also has a unique metabolic system. Of the pore of its body, the animal named 'Illacme tobini' can release 200 toxic substances. The hazardous liquids that supposedly serves as a 'weapon' to protect themselves from predators.
The name of Illacme Tobini itself taken from the name of a scientist who discovered this new species, Ben Tobini, a cave expert in the Grand Canyon National Park. The Illacme tobini research starts from 2002 to 2009. During the search formed by Tobini, a cave biologist, Jean Krejca (now working in Zara Evironmental Texas) found the figure of a small milipede measuring only 20 millimeters long.
Krejca then send it to be analyzed to milipeda expert Paul Marek of Virgina Tech, and William Sher from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. The scientists then 'excited' to realize they're researching a new species of the Illacme type (so far only one type that was found, ie Illacme plenipes).
The animal was found in an area that is as far as 240 kilometers from Lang Cave. The millipede has 750 feet, and is the milipede with feet at most on the Earth. "I never expected to 'hold' the second type of animal with the most number of feet on the planet, which was found in a cave within 240 kilometers of the previous finding," Marek said in a statement.
After the discovery, the researchers continue their search in hopes of finding another sample of Illacme tobini. They are probing around Lange Cave and 63 other locations in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But did not find others. The millipede in the hands of scientists is believed to be the only one Illacme tobini and stud of the existing new species.
According to the research, this 'blind' millipede is prey on fungi as the main food source. They also mention that the ninth and tenth feet of the arthopoda can be transformed into a millipede typical penises known as gonopods. The 'penis' has a tapered tip shaped like a shovel and a projection that serves deliver sperm from the male to the female one.
Illacme tobini discovered 90 years after Illacme plenipes discovered in 1928. Both of these animal species belong to Siphonorhinidae (a group only consist of 12 species). *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LIVESCIENCE]
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