The remorhaz is another creature original to D&D, and one of the few such that is honoured with a proper name rather than a descriptive term. It's one of the more powerful creatures in the 1st edition that are described as simply animals, rather than intelligent beings. This is largely because it's so difficult to hurt, although it also has a bite that does more damage than that of most dragons. In later editions, it's toned down, although it remains quite fearsome.1E
As originally depicted in the 1E Monster Manual, the remorhaz has a snake-like body, with a thick leathery hide that's harder to penetrate than plate steel. The upper surface of the body is covered with an irregular array of white protuberances, which apparently shed excess heat from the intestines. The lower surface has a series of wide flat scales, which also resemble those seen on many snakes, reinforcing the resemblance. The key difference, of course, is that the remorhaz also has a huge number of legs. These are multi-jointed and covered with an exoskeleton; the segments within the leg are all of similar size, suggesting the relatively simple structure of a centipede's legs rather than those of a spider or insect.
The other arthropod-like feature is that the remorhaz has large compound eyes, a feature that is rare, but not unknown, in centipede species. Otherwise, the head appears, like the torso, to be vertebrate in form, with a horizontally opening mouth possessing snake-like fangs, and apparently no other teeth. The 'wings' projecting from either side of the fore-part of the body (we can't say 'chest', since a snake's body behind the head is almost nothing but a chest, anatomically speaking) are reminiscent in shape to the hood of a cobra - although the struts that support them clearly aren't like anything in a real snake. The head also appears to have horns, and some kind of tentacles or barbels above the mouth that might be sensory.The 2E version has legs that appear more insectile, and the 'horns' now seem more likely to be antennae. The barbels are slender and bifurcated at the tip, and the creature has numerous, needle-like teeth of the sort that some fish have, rather than snake fangs. There is some indication that the legs are lined up with the wide belly-scales, which does make the anatomy look more segmented than before. Despite this, and the fact that the legs are specifically stated to be chitinous, it still seems to be at least as much a vertebrate as it is an arthropod.
Oddly, its stated method of attack involves directly exposing its soft underbelly to its potential prey. That's likely a plot device to give PCs more of a chance against it, but it's hard to justify from an evolutionary - or divine design - perspective.
3E
In 3E, however, the creature goes full-on arthropod. The body is now fully segmented, and entirely covered in hard material, possibly asbestos-laced chitin or something of that sort. The legs are perhaps more centipede-like than in the previous edition, and more obviously have claws on the tip that may serve as spikes for walking on ice. The head is also more arthropod-like than before, with the barbels now also resembling antennae, if positioned rather differently, and the mouth having what look like small mandibles as well as an array of teeth. In other changes, the protrusions on the back now form paired rows and are permanently red, rather than only glowing when the creature is ready to attack.
Oh, and the plural has changed to "remorhazes", having previously been the same as the singular.
The 3E version is somewhat smaller than the previous ones, now being an average of 20 feet (6 metres), whereas previously that had been the minimum figure for an adult. The vulnerable underbelly has also gone, which fits with the armoured look in the picture. Further detail reveals that a remorhaz has acute hearing, including the ability to sense vibrations in the ground while it is tunnelling beneath potential prey. It's notably more intelligent than before; previously, it had been the same as a typical snake but now, while incapable of speech, it's only one point behind a (clearly sentient) ogre.
Although still quite formidable, it is now less deadly than it had been before. That's largely down to changes in the rule system, which make some of the instant-death effects of the original no longer viable. But there's also no longer any hint of its former inherent resistance to magical effects, which makes it easier to attack from a distance.
5E
Unusually, the picture of the remorhaz in 5E is clearly showing exactly the same creature as the one in 3E. It's easier to see that the inside of the mouth contains multiple rows of sharp teeth and that it does open horizontally like that of a vertebrate (mandibles notwithstanding), but that's just the lighting and angle.
In terms of the statistics, the remorhaz's bite is more deadly than before, but its other abilities less so. Its armour is tough, but not quite so impenetrable as it used to be. The intelligence has dropped and is now about halfway between an ogre and, say, a lion - which is still significantly higher than in the first two editions, where most mammals had a higher rating than it did. But this does at least make more sense for a creature that's not intended to be fully sentient.
While the version in the first two editions has features of both vertebrates and arthropods, that from 3E onwards is more clearly based on a centipede in terms of general body form. Nonetheless, even ignoring the matter of the size, it clearly isn't a centipede, with a number of key physical differences.
Behind the head, all of the body segments of a centipede are similar, except for the first (which has pincers instead of legs) and the last two (which are legless). In a remorhaz, however, five distinct body regions can be seen. The first five segments constitute a neck, lacking any appendages other than the dorsal spines. Behind them is a moderately long region in which segment bears a pair of long spines, joined to those either side by a flexible membrane. The membrane must limit the movement of these segments somewhat, since it seems to be fused over the joints between them, but a larger question is the purpose of the "wings" that this forms.
At first sight, especially since they are prominently displayed when the creature rears to attack, they appear to be a threat signal, making it seem larger and more threatening than it actually is... but what they'd need to intimidate, when the remorhaz is so dangerous in the first place is unclear. Another possibility, then, is that they have something to do with the mating ritual and only coincidentally look like a threat display.
Behind the wings, we have a third region of the body that, like the neck, lacks appendages, and then, the fourth, longest segment, which bears the legs. The final region forms the tail, and once again, lacks limbs.
Internally, as one might expect, the segments of a centipede, and likely a remorhaz, have a fair degree of duplication. Each has a pair of openings to the respiratory system (likely lungs in a remorhaz, given its size, rather than the trachae of a real centipede), and a nerve ganglion and muscles to control the legs. The digestive tract and heart are both tubes that run most of the length of the body, so this could be true in a remorhaz, too. On the other hand, there are only a single pair of excretory organs, which open directly into the gut - a remorhaz, being larger, may have more, and they would certainly be more complex.
The mouthparts of a remorhaz are quite different from those of real arthropods, lacking some of the palps and other structures found in them, and having proportionately smaller mandibles that look far less significant than the teeth. (Centipedes have long mandibles, which function instead of teeth). Some arthropods do have a second set of antennae, as remorhazes seem to, although this is only true of crustaceans, and they are positioned differently.
We can't clearly see the final body segment in any of the pictures, although the distant glimpses we do get suggest that it is simply a blunt tip. In centipedes, however, the final segment also bears the genitals; these may be further forward in a remorhaz, given the comparative length of its tail region. Some editions mention that it is possible - but rare - to encounter a mated pair, implying that they must remain together for at least a short time before or after mating. Which is more than centipedes do, but they are less intelligent and don't need to incubate the eggs, as 2E says that remorhazes do. This may, therefore, require the male to bring the female food while she is unable to hunt, although it's also possible that she just fasts, depending on how long incubation is supposed to take.
The largest centipedes in the real world are born with a full set of limbs, but a great many of the smaller ones add extra segments as they age. How likely this is for remorhazes depends on how long they get, and whether they have to regularly moult their exoskeleton, as genuine arthropods do. Alternatively, they could resculpt it from the inside, which would require a different cellular structure, but nothing that contradicts what we know. If not, perhaps they eat the cuticle after shedding it, since there don't seem to be lots of empty ones lying about.The signature power of the remorhaz is its ability to generate intense heat. In the early editions, this is due to something like a thermite reaction, occurring in the animal's non-combustible intestines when it is ready to feed. In later editions, it seems to be a near-constantly burning heat source, although it's seemingly possible to turn it down to prevent the ice around the creature melting when it lies in wait for prey.
The temperature generated in the first two editions is well in excess of 1,500 °C (2,800 °F). We know this, because it can melt iron on contact, which is pretty impressive. By 5E, however, it's much less intense, and it isn't generated from a reaction in the gut, since that isn't especially hot (an ingested victim only takes acid damage).
Even so, this would surely have to be generated magically, since it's hard to see how such a chemical reaction could otherwise be sustained. The remorhaz certainly can't obtain enough food to maintain such a high body temperature naturally, even if Arctic wastelands in D&D are significantly less devoid of life than they are in reality. Mind you, it's hard to see how it get enough food to survive at all, given the size of it; polar bears are much smaller and have the advantage of being able to hunt at sea, rather than on the barren ice. There's clearly an odd ecology going on here...
As to how hot it might be, for iron to glow as brightly as the remorhaz's spines seem to in the pictures, it would have to be at least 800 °C (1,500 °F). While we don't know if the spines literally are metal, or if they glow for some other reason, they can't be non-magical organic matter, or they'd combust, so this seems as good a guess as any.
As to why it needs to generate such a high temperature... well, it would surely help with melting ice as the creature burrows through it, but it seems overkill for that. It does, however, grant the remorhaz immunity from intense cold, which given how many magical arctic creatures seem to use that as an attack (winter wolves, white dragons) makes it a pretty handy defence.
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