GIANT marine scorpions much larger than humans ever wandered and hunted in ancient oceans.
Creepy creatures have been documented in a new study trying to complete the irregular scientific record of Australian marine scorpions.
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Great creatures date back to a period called the Paleozoic Era.
This was around 541 million and 252 million years ago, before dinosaurs took over the planet.
It was a time when arthropods, like insects, crustaceans, and scorpions, could reach extreme sizes.
Paleozoic arthropods were some of the largest animals on Earth at the time and would have been found in many oceans around the world.
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We know that marine scorpions resembled the scorpions we have today because of fossilized remains.
However, they are more like cousins of the modern scorpions that we know.
They are some of the largest marine predators ever observed in the fossil record.
This included the Jaekelopterus rhenaniae species, which measured up to eight feet in length.
Experts compare them to modern great white sharks in terms of how high up the food chain they would have been.
The fossilized remains suggest they could have caught prey in their huge claws and been crushed by tooth-shaped structures in their legs.
They were also thought to be fast swimmers.
Scientists think they ate smaller fish and arthropods, but they haven’t ruled out that the giant scorpions would have feasted on a human if they had existed at the time.
Australia’s ancient marine scorpions were first documented in 1899, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about them.
The new study included fossils of marine scorpions that had not previously been observed.
It provides evidence of six different groups of creatures that could have existed in Australia.
Future research hopes to find more complete specimens and better document ancient species.
This study has been published in Gondwana Research.
A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years …
- 4.6 billion years ago: the origin of the Earth
- 3.8 billion years ago: the first life appears on Earth
- 2.1 Billion Years Ago: Multiple Cell Life Forms Evolve
- 1.5 billion years ago, eukaryotes emerged, which are cells that contain a nucleus within their membranes.
- 550 million years ago – the first arthropods evolve
- 530 million years ago – the first fish appears
- 470 million years ago – the first land plants appear
- 380 million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
- 370 million years ago: the first amphibians emerge from the water to land
- 320 million years ago – the first reptiles evolved
- 230 million years ago – dinosaurs evolved
- 200 million years ago – mammals appear
- 150 million years ago: the first birds evolved
- 130 million years ago – first flowering plants
- 100 million years ago – the first bees
- 55 million years ago – hares and rabbits appear
- 30 million years ago: the first cats evolve
- 20 million years ago: great apes evolve
- 7 million years ago, the first human ancestors appear
- 2 million years ago – Homo erectus appears
- 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves
- 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonized
- 40,000 years ago – Neandetal extinction
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What do you think of this scorpion discovery? Let us know in the comments …
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