LONDON, Mar 30: Scientists have discovered a new species of millipede in the UK lurking in an old Welsh coal mine – a 12-millimetre-long creature dubbed as the “Maerdy Monster”.
The species is “unknown and undescribed”, said Steve Gregory, of the British Myriapod and Isopod Group (BMIG) in the UK.
Belonging to the Turdulisoma and Haplobainosomatidae family, it is the first millipede species found in the UK since 1993, researchers said.
The creatures are usually found across the Iberian Peninsula and it is not known how the millipede came to be in south Wales, researchers said.
The discovery of a new species in the UK is “very unusual” as “there is not much left to find” because the country has a long history of biological recording by naturalists, BMIG said.
A scientist at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology research centre in Germany claimed the species was previously unknown and gave the creature the “working title” of the Maerdy Monster.
“The Maerdy species is distinct from the four similar species and, therefore, will have to be formally described and named as a ‘new species’ in due course,” Gregory told ‘BBC News’.
“It is not known whether this is a genuine native species, having colonised after the last Ice Age, or accidentally introduced into south Wales,” Gregory said.
“It is a great find and because the millipedes are new to science it puts the old coal tips on the map,” said Liam Olds, who runs the Colliery Spoil Biodiversity Initiative in the UK.
“They are important places for wildlife and we should be conserving them,” Olds said. (AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
