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Originally Posted by Te(V)plar
Totally bizarre. I thought the properties of chitin were such that it would be impossible for an organism of that size to be able to move.
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On land it couldn't move. But there was a six-foot long ancient millipede on land.
It's kind of a myth that chitin is necessarily the limiting factor. After all, arthropods in the ocean in the present day get enormous (though their shells are not chitin, but rather a calcareous substance). Giant lobsters or crabs, anyone?
During the devonian period, oxygen levels were much higher than they are today, and allowed arthropods to reach gigantic sizes. Like the giant millipede mentioned above, and giant dragonflies and spiders.