Giant Sea Scorpion – Scientists have uncovered fossil remains of a giant 8-foot long sea scorpion that terrorized ancient riverbeds and swamps with it’s enormous claws.
Known as jaekelopterus rhenaniae, the giant sea scorpion’s fossilized claw, estimated to be 390 million years old, was discovered in a quarry in Germany.
According to the BBC, the estimated size of the animal exceeds the record for any other sea scorpion, or eurypterid, found by nearly 50cm.
The eurypterids are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of modern land scorpions and possibly all arachnids, the class of animals that also includes spiders.
Dr Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol co-authored the Biology Letters journal entry.
“This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realised, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy crawlies were.”
Click here to watch a BBC video about the giant sea scorpion discovery.
And that’s the latest news on the discovery of a fossil claw of a giant sea scorpion.
Tags: discovery, fossil, giant sea scorpion, science, sea scorpion
November 21st, 2007 at 11:54 am
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