Monstrous Underwater Scorpion Fossil Discovered by Researchers in Australia

Sea scorpions no longer exist, which you may be relieved to discover because land scorpions aren't known for their friendliness.

Researchers looked into a fossil lying about at the Queensland Museum in Australia for years and found it belonged to a terrifying tribe of long-extinct carnivores.

Underwater "Monster" Discovered

According to a statement released on Friday, the Queenslandd Museum called the sea scorpion a "huge monster" that reached 3 feet (1 meter) in length. It lived near what is now the Australian town of Theodore, in lakes or rivers. It's the first time a sea scorpion has been discovered in Queensland.

We've previously seen some other sea scorpion fossils, including one that was unearthed in China and was the size of a dog. Eurypterids are the scientific name for sea scorpions. Woodwardopterus freemanorum is the name given to the new species.

Discovery

The fossil was unearthed in the 1990s and evaluated by the museum for the first time in 2013. The Queensland Museum's geosciences principal curator, Andrew Rozefelds, was able to revisit the as-yet-unidentified "cold case" creature during COVID lockdowns.

"The fragmented specimen was previously placed in the 'too-hard basket,' but the closures allowed us to review and reconsider parts of our fossil collection, and this particular fossil had long attracted me," Rozefelds said. Rozefelds is a co-author of an article published in Historical Biology on the sea scorpion.

The fossil was dated to 252 million years old by Rozefelds and lead author Markus Poschmann, a eurypterid researcher. Around the same time, sea scorpions vanished, making Woodwardopterus freemanorum one of the least known species of its sort. "These new fascinating fossil fills a gap in our understanding of this group of creatures in Australia, and indeed the rest of the globe," said Rozefelds.

Eurypterids

Yale's Peabody Division of Invertebrate Paleontology holds the world's biggest and most diversified collection of eurypterid fossils.

Eurypterids, sometimes known as "sea scorpions," are a chelicerate family of arthropods, including horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites, and ticks. They thrived throughout the planet for more than 200 million years until they vanished during a global extinction at the end of the Permian 250 million years ago. They were most prevalent in Silurian rocks (444 to 416 million years ago).

Sea Scorpions Dominating the Waters

The only eurypterids that could swim across wide oceans were sea scorpions. The pterygotid eurypterids were the world's biggest arthropods, reaching lengths of more than 8 feet (about 2.5 meters).

The largest was discovered in New York State, as well as in Germany and the Czech Republic. The pterygotids would strike and slice into food such as prehistoric fish or the progenitors of squids with their distinctive and deadly claws and binocular eyesight that allowed depth awareness.

Modern scorpions and other arachnids are relatives of sea scorpions. The one discovered in Theodore would have been a top predator in its day. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about tangles with them now.

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