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Giant Centipede Photo: Fake Or Not?

gerhard1

Abominable Snowman
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
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873
A friend sent me this. Do centipedes grow to this size, or is the photograph faked?

He called it a Vietnamese bam centipede.

Giant-Centipede-55.jpg
 
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Just having a quick google the biggest grow to a maximum of 10 inches and are south american. That looks considerably larger possibly x3 so I'd say fake.
 
Fake ...

The largest known centipede lives in the South American / Caribbean region, and reaches a length of only 10 - 12 inches - i.e., only approximately as long as the man's forearm.

The photo is an example of forced perspective - i.e., rigged so as to make something look much bigger. In this case, the centipede is hung close to the camera and the man poses so that his hand and the critter intersect, as if he were holding it.

If you look closely at his hand you'll see it's not grasping anything.
 
The person posting that pic over at Reddit circa 5 years ago admitted it was done with forced perspective and hanging the critter from a string...

That doesn't really susprise me. My first thoughts were that the hand doesn't seem to be properly engaged with the object, and the left arm seems somehow too relaxed to be holding something which would have had considerable weight.
 
Prehistoric ones grew to an immense size, much bigger than that. So it's not impossible, but that pic is a bit faked up.
 
Prehistoric ones grew to an immense size, much bigger than that. So it's not impossible, but that pic is a bit faked up.

I had a book about Dinosaurs and prehistoric life in general that had an illustration of a six foot long millipede.
 
Prehistoric ones grew to an immense size, much bigger than that. So it's not impossible, but that pic is a bit faked up.

Weren't those things (as pictured above) immediate ancestors of our modern centi and milli pedes, rather belonging to either group? I think there was more oxygen in the air and some may have been aquatic too.
 
The ancient creature is named Arthropleura. It was an ancient arthropod which ranged from (1 to 7.5 ft). This giant prehistoric arthropod was able to grow larger than modern arthropods, partly because of the greater due to the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere and the lack of large terrestrial predators. It was only related to centipedes and millipedes. Arthropleura was not a predator but a herbivorous arthropod due to spores found in its gut. It lived during the carboniferous period ~ (360 to 300) MYA. So don’t be concerned it’s long gone.
 
The ancient creature is named Arthropleura. It was an ancient arthropod which ranged from (1 to 7.5 ft). This giant prehistoric arthropod was able to grow larger than modern arthropods, partly because of the greater due to the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere and the lack of large terrestrial predators. It was only related to centipedes and millipedes. Arthropleura was not a predator but a herbivorous arthropod due to spores found in its gut. It lived during the carboniferous period ~ (360 to 300) MYA. So don’t be concerned it’s long gone.

Wouldn't like to meet one though, it might mistake me for a Herb.
 
I've seen ones like that but not as long, maybe about 6 inches at most.
 
i had a close encounter with a huge centipede in toronto on the danforth a few years back ... had no idea what it was, mustve been 4-5" long, ran across the room casting a huge shadow ... prior to then i figured centipede = caterpillar
 
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