Eurypterus
Eurypterus was a sea scorpion that lived in shallow seas more than 400 million years ago. It was about as long as a pencil and swam with two big paddles. It is the best known sea scorpion of all, and some of the finest fossils come from Estonia.
When did it live?
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Fun facts
More than 95 out of every 100 sea scorpion fossils ever found are Eurypterus.
The very first fossil, found in 1818, was mistaken for a catfish.
Fossils from Estonia are so well kept that scientists could dissolve the rock away and study the real old skin under a microscope.
It is the official state fossil of New York.
The biggest one ever found was about 60 centimetres long, much bigger than usual.
Most asked questions about Eurypterus
?Was Eurypterus a real scorpion?
No. It is called a sea scorpion because it looked a bit like one, but it was a different animal that lived in water.
?How big was Eurypterus?
Most were 13 to 23 centimetres long, about the size of a pencil.
?When did Eurypterus live?
About 432 to 418 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eurypterus
- Named by
- De Kay, 1825
- Group
- Prehistoric giants
- Family
- Eurypteridae
- Classification
- Eurypterida > Eurypteridae
- Also known as
- Sea scorpion
Where the facts come from
- Eurypterus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Luis Fernández García. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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