A coffee-table-size scorpion roamed Earth before forests existed
Paleontologists have identified a 415-million-year-old fossil, Praearcturus gigas, as the largest scorpion ever discovered. The finding suggests that giant arthropods evolved much earlier than previously thought, long before the emergence of forests.
Why it matters
This discovery significantly shifts the timeline of arthropod evolution and our understanding of early terrestrial life.
A newly analyzed fossil predator from what is now England and Wales has been identified as the largest scorpion known to science. Researchers from The University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum reached the conclusion after revisiting fossils that had remained in museum collections for more than 150 years.
The animal, Praearcturus gigas , reached roughly one meter in length and carried pincers more than 16 centimeters long. Around 415 million years ago, it would have been an imposing predator in the floodplain environments of the Early Devonian.
A study published in Palaeontology used modern analytical methods and comparisons with more recently described fossil species to determine that Praearcturus was a scorpion and represented a distinct species.
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