Jaekelopterus
Jaekelopterus was a giant sea scorpion that lived long before the dinosaurs. It was the biggest bug-like animal that ever lived, longer than a grown-up person is tall. It had huge spiky claws and big eyes for hunting.
When did it live?
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Fun facts
Just one of its claws was about 45 centimetres long.
With its claws stretched out in front, it was more than 3 metres long.
Its big eyes could see very sharply, which helped it find prey.
Its flat tail worked like a rudder to steer while it swam.
Its smaller cousin from America grew only to about 80 centimetres.
Most asked questions about Jaekelopterus
?What is the biggest bug that ever lived?
Jaekelopterus. It was about 2.5 metres long, the biggest arthropod scientists have ever found.
?When did Jaekelopterus live?
Roughly 430 to 390 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs.
?How do we know how big it was?
Scientists found a huge fossil claw in Germany and worked out the size of the whole animal from it.
Myth buster
Myth: Sea scorpions were scorpions that lived in the sea.
Truth: Not quite. They were a different group of animals, and Jaekelopterus probably lived in rivers and lakes, not in the sea.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Jaekelopterus
- Group
- Prehistoric giants
- Family
- Pterygotidae
- Classification
- Eurypterida > Pterygotidae
- Also known as
- Sea scorpion
Where the facts come from
- Jaekelopterus (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 Ghedoghedo. 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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