New Delhi: 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.
(With PTI inputs)
