Ready for an 8-foot long arachnid?
Used to be 8' scorpions swimming in
the oceans.
The discovery of a giant fossilised claw from an ancient sea
scorpion indicates that when alive it would have been about two and a half
meters long, much taller than the average man. This find, from rocks 390 million
years old, suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much
larger in the past than previously
thought.
Dr Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol said, ‘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.’…
The claw is from a sea scorpion (eurypterid) Jaekelopterus rhenaniae that lived between 460 and 255 million years ago…Eurypterids are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of scorpions and possibly all arachnids.
Arachnids, eh. There are a few Black Widows living in my woodpile that think they are this big.
Dr Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol said, ‘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.’…
The claw is from a sea scorpion (eurypterid) Jaekelopterus rhenaniae that lived between 460 and 255 million years ago…Eurypterids are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of scorpions and possibly all arachnids.
Arachnids, eh. There are a few Black Widows living in my woodpile that think they are this big.
Posted: Fri - November 23, 2007 at 09:41 PM