Why So Many Legs?

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A lot of people want to know, why? Why so many legs? Well, why not? I mean, don't get me wrong, i would like 700 to one thousand legs also. But from an evolutionary stamp point, why so many limbs? That's a good question that often comes up. Essentially, the body plan of a milipede, you've got head, then youve got trunk. And so trunk is just all the other segments after the head. So they have a segment right after the head called a column. And it's kind of larger. Sidenote, so their quadrate column is just a big squarea neck.

How many legs? Why so many legs? What's a millipede versus a centipede? And again WHY SO MANY LEGS. We have just the guy for that: Diplopodologist Dr. Derek Hennen. As a person who’s spent over a decade sorting through leaf litter and naming scores of new species, Derek is truly a champion for the multi-limbed little critters. If you liked what Casey Clapp brought to Dendrology, get ready to appreciate millipedes like you never thought you would. Also: mythology gossip, world records, Taylor Swift fandom, and sniffing bugs.

Dr. Derek Hennen’s website

Follow Dr. Derek Hennen on Instagram and Twitter and @dearmillipede

A donation was made to Lower Muskingum Conservancy

Millipedes of Ohio Field Guide PDF

You may also enjoy: Dipterology (FLIES), Sparklebuttology (FIREFLIES), Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES), Entomology (INSECTS), Scorpiology (SCORPIONS), Kinetic Salticidology (DANCING SPIDERS), Acarology (TICKS), Melittology (BEES)

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