The age of giant arthropods
A millipede longer than a person and dragonflies with the wingspan of a hawk.
- When
- Known to
- ± 10 million years
- Era
- Carboniferous, Paleozoic
Arthropleura reached around two and a half metres, the largest land invertebrate ever to exist, and griffinflies such as Meganeura had wingspans over 70 centimetres. Arthropods breathe by diffusion through tracheae, which limits body size, and unusually oxygen-rich air raises that ceiling. Predation pressure from flying vertebrates was also absent — nothing else was in the air at all.