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390-million-year-old scorpion fossil -- biggest bug known
Eurekalert! ^ | 11/21/07 | Janet Rettig Emanuel

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.”


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: bugs; fossils; godsgravesglyphs; science

1 posted on 11/21/2007 2:29:49 PM PST by Teflonic
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To: Teflonic

They get big here.


2 posted on 11/21/2007 2:31:26 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: SeaDragon
Now how about finding one of these in your attic!
3 posted on 11/21/2007 2:32:06 PM PST by RikaStrom (The number one rule of the Kama Sutra is that you both be on the same page.../Exeter 051705)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

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.


4 posted on 11/21/2007 2:33:49 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

“Why can’t they turn into giant prehistoric bugs or something?”


5 posted on 11/21/2007 2:35:02 PM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: Teflonic

Somehow this could be a great premise for a future Michael Crichton novel.


6 posted on 11/21/2007 2:35:37 PM PST by joebuck
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To: Teflonic

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.


7 posted on 11/21/2007 2:37:36 PM PST by blueheron2 (Third party votes = votes for Clinton)
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To: tet68

Sea Scorpions likely would taste more like lobster. Scorpions are no more bugs or insects than lobsters are, of course.


8 posted on 11/21/2007 2:37:37 PM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Ron Paul Criminality: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/paul_bot)
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To: blueheron2

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!


9 posted on 11/21/2007 2:39:47 PM PST by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Ron Paul Criminality: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/paul_bot)
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To: Teflonic
Giant isopods.
Looks like a beefy trilobyte to me.
10 posted on 11/21/2007 2:41:59 PM PST by Darksheare (Cordite Chipmunk, the Splodent Rodent.)
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To: blueheron2
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.

Living in the water would allow greater size.

11 posted on 11/21/2007 2:50:54 PM PST by SampleMan (We are a free and industrious people. Socialist nannies do not become us.)
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG?


12 posted on 11/21/2007 3:07:24 PM PST by Fractal Trader (.)
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To: Fractal Trader; Teflonic

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


13 posted on 11/21/2007 3:22:10 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Sunday, November 18, 2007"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Teflonic
It looks like the man is drawn in blackface. Obviously from the Vaudevillocene period.
14 posted on 11/21/2007 3:29:08 PM PST by A knight without armor
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To: A knight without armor

Translated it reads “tastes like chicken”.


15 posted on 11/21/2007 3:31:28 PM PST by Darksheare (Cordite Chipmunk, the Splodent Rodent.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
The gigantic fossil claw of an 390 million-year-old sea scorpion, recently found in Germany...

Apparently they traveled in groups...


16 posted on 11/21/2007 10:22:06 PM PST by JRios1968 (Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will. - Ben Stein)
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To: blueheron2
Wasn’t there supposed to be a limit on the size of creatures with exoskeletons?

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.

17 posted on 11/22/2007 8:18:48 AM PST by melt (Someday, they'll wish their Jihad... Jihadn't.)
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Gods
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Note: this topic is from November 2007.

Blast from the Past.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

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18 posted on 07/14/2009 5:56:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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