Unknown group of puffer millipedes in Cretaceous amber

Contents of the project

Cretaceous amber from the age of the dinosaurs, around 100 million years old, is a unique window into the evolution of millipedes. Among the several hundred pieces currently available for research at the Museum Koenig, the spherical millipedes present a particular challenge. Because they are curled up, virtually no features are recognisable from the outside. Only CT scans and 3D reconstructions, which can be carried out in our morphology laboratory, reveal important features. Today, there are two surviving orders of puffer millipedes: The sapsuckers (Glomerida), which also occur in Germany, and the more tropical giant squid (Sphaerotheriida). Female sapsuckers have 17 pairs of legs and 10 or 11 dorsal plates (tergites), while female giant squid have 21 pairs of legs and 12 dorsal plates. Fossilised amber muggers have 12 dorsal plates but only 19 pairs of legs. Other characteristics must be taken into account in order to correctly categorise this extinct group.