-PJ
Posted on 03/08/2006 1:17:15 PM PST by S0122017
Scorpion bigger than human described
Nov. 30, 2005 Courtesy Nature and World Science staff
A geologist working in Scotland has uncovered footprints that he says come from a fearsome water scorpion bigger than a human.
The Desert Hairy Scorpion Hadrurus arizonensis (Courtesy Imagers NASA Science Education)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The tracks were made about 330 million years ago by a six-legged creature called Hibbertopterus, according to Martin Whyte of the University of Sheffield, U.K.
Hibbertopterus was some 1.6 metres (5¼ feet) long and a metre (3¼ feet) wide, he added.
The tracks show that this now-extinct group of animals, previously thought to dwell in water only, could also survive on land, according to Whyte.
At around the same time as the creature lived, scientists believe our own four-limbed ancestors were also making their first steps towards leaving the water and colonizing the land.
The six-metre-long trackway reveals strides that were 27 cm (11 inches) long, and also features a central groove left by the creature’s dragging tail, according to Whyte. This, he added, shows the creature was probably a very slow, lumbering beast when moving on land.
Whyte described the finding in the Dec. 1 issue of the research journal Nature.
Post a picture of Chester Carville......snake-eyes.
-PJ
Fossil was found in rock strata 330 million years old.
In non-scientific articles about science you're not going to get a 10 page long description of how every date in the article was arrived at citing every source and technique used, just as in every newspaper article about some criminal convicted with DNA you're not going to get a 10 page long blow-by-blow description of how the DNA test was done.
"Scorpion bigger than human described "
I saw that movie in the 60's. Next they will find a Praying Mantis bigger than a DC-9. I saw that one too. Everything I needed to learn about paleontology I learned from monster movies.
LOL, rock me like a hurricane.
I never knew that the singer was so tiny!
The Smithsonian used to have a partial fossil of a sea scorpion that measured some two meters from head to tail.
He's apparently about the same height as Ronnie James Dio.
Man, what a set of stingers!
Thank God for small favors.
There are also crabs of a meter wide, saw one in preservatives. Must make great pets.
A simple mention of the type of dating would have been sufficient.
"I'm curious as to how they arrived at 330 million years ago."
A guide at a museum was showing tourists a fossil she claimed was 500,011 years old. Someone asked how they could date it so accurately? The guide replied that 11 years ago they were told it was 500,000 years old. :-}
FINISH HIM!!!
Some scientists swore it couldn't have been a day over 315 million.
You can run in to these things all over Durotar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.