Scientists in Australia have discovered a millipede with more legs than any other known animal.
The pale thread-like millipede has more than 1,300 legs and lives deep underground, a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports revealed on Friday.
Despite the name "millipede" translating to mean a thousand feet, no millipede has ever been described with more than 750 legs until now.
The creature, named Eumillipes Persephone, was found almost 60 metres underground in a drill hole created for mineral exploration in Western Australia.
"This diminutive animal (0.95 mm wide, 95.7 mm long) has 330 segments, a cone-shaped head with enormous antennae, and a beak for feeding," the scientists said in the paper.
The animal's scientific name means "true thousand feet" while Persephone is a reference to Greek mythology's queen of the underworld.
An adult female in the study had 1306 legs and another had 998. Two adult males had 818 legs and 778 legs.
The previous record-holder was a California millipede species with 750 legs.
