Posted on 11/21/2007 2:29:48 PM PST by Teflonic
New Haven, Conn. — The gigantic fossil claw of an 390 million-year-old sea scorpion, recently found in Germany, shows that ancient arthropods — spiders, insects, crabs and the like — were surprisingly larger than their modern-day counterparts.
“Imagine an eight-foot-long scorpion,” said O. Erik Tetlie, postdoctoral associate in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale, and an author of the report online in Royal Society Biology Letters. “The claw itself is a foot-and-a-half long — indicating that these ancient arthropods were much larger than previous estimates — and certainly the largest seen to date.”
Colleague and co-author Markus Poschmann discovered the fossil claw from this ancient sea scorpion, Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, in a quarry near Prüm in Germany. This creature, which lived between 460 and 255 million years ago is of a group that have been known for some time to be among the largest extinct arthropods, based on both body fossils and trace fossils. According to the authors, it is believed that these extinct aquatic creatures are the ancestors of modern scorpions and spiders.
Tetlie said that geologists are debating the reasons for evolution of these giant arthropods, “While some believe they evolved with the higher levels of atmospheric oxygen that were present in the past, some say they evolved in a parallel ‘arms race’ with early armoured fish that were their likely prey.” he said
Lead author Simon Braddy from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, UK 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.”
They get big here.
I had one bigger than that get away last week,
then they were biting hard, couldn’t keep em off the hook.
Mmmmmmmm Sea Scorpion Steaks....mmmmmmmmm.
“Why can’t they turn into giant prehistoric bugs or something?”
Somehow this could be a great premise for a future Michael Crichton novel.
Wasn’t there supposed to be a limit on the size of creatures with exoskeletons? I saw a documentary that was supposedly showing the biggest insect possible because of weight limitations or something similar.
Sea Scorpions likely would taste more like lobster. Scorpions are no more bugs or insects than lobsters are, of course.
The limit was on arthropods on land, do to the insufficiency of their respiratory systems. In this case they were water breathing, and the atmosphere had far more oxygen then it does now!
Living in the water would allow greater size.
GGG?
Heh...
Scientists find fossil of enormous bug
AP via YAHOO! | 11-20-07 | THOMAS WAGNER
Posted on 11/20/2007 10:45:12 PM EST by Pharmboy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928675/posts
Scientists Uncover Fossil of Biggest Bug Ever at 8 Feet Long
Fox News | 11-21-07
Posted on 11/21/2007 1:36:51 PM EST by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1928960/posts
Translated it reads “tastes like chicken”.
Apparently they traveled in groups...
Insects [6 legs], like common houseflies, cannot moult their exoskeletons. Their muscles can't expand within their rigid body armor, and so they die within a month.
Some arthropods [8 legs], like crabs, can continue to grow, because they can moult.
Nature is weird.
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Note: this topic is from November 2007. |
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