LONDON: The first creature to emerge from the sea and breathe fresh air, a tiny millipede, took its first faltering steps in the small coastal town of Stonehaven just south of Aberdeen in northern Scotland.

A centimetre-long segment of fossilized millipede, discovered in the town by Mike Newman, a bus driver and amateur palaeontologist, has been authenticated as the oldest remains yet found of a breathing animal.

The millipede is believed to be around 420 million years old, some 20 million years older than its predecessor in the primordial hierarchy, which was also found in Aberdeenshire.

Mr Newman discovered the fossil at a siltstone bed outcropping near Cowie harbour three years ago. But it has taken a great deal of work for experts from the National Museums of Scotland and Yale university to prove the significance of his find.

In the current edition of American Journal of Palaeontology, the experts confirm that the millipede had spiracles, which it used for breathing, on the outside of its body.

At that time Stonehaven was merely another insignificant part of the giant Laurasia continent, which encompassed modern-day Europe, Siberia and North America.-Dawn/The Guardian News Service.