[SchoolyardChoke]

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - This was a bug you couldn't swat and definitely couldn't step on. British scientists have stumbled across a fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that is of such large proportion it would make the entire creature the biggest bug ever.


How big? Bigger than you, and at 8 feet long as big as some Smart cars.

The discovery in 390-million-year-old rocks suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were far larger in the past than previously thought, said Simon Braddy, a University of Bristol paleontologist and one of the study's three authors.

"This is an amazing discovery," he said Tuesday.

"We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies. But we never realized until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were," he said.

The research found a type of sea scorpion that was almost half a yard longer than previous estimates and the largest one ever to have evolved.

The study, published online Tuesday in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, means that before this sea scorpion became extinct it was much longer than today's average man is tall.

Prof. Jeorg W. Schneider, a paleontologist at Freiberg Mining Academy in southeastern Germany, said the study provides valuable new information about "the last of the giant scorpions."

Schneider, who was not involved in the study, said these scorpions "were dominant for millions of years because they didn't have natural enemies. Eventually they were wiped out by large fish with jaws and teeth."

Braddy's partner paleontologist Markus Poschmann found the claw fossil several years ago in a quarry near Prum, Germany, that probably had once been an ancient estuary or swamp.

"I was loosening pieces of rock with a hammer and chisel when I suddenly realized there was a dark patch of organic matter on a freshly removed slab. After some cleaning I could identify this as a small part of a large claw," said Poschmann, another author of the study.

"Although I did not know if it was more complete or not, I decided to try and get it out. The pieces had to be cleaned separately, dried, and then glued back together. It was then put into a white plaster jacket to stabilize it," he said.

Eurypterids, or ancient sea scorpions, are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of today's scorpions and possibly all arachnids, a class of joint-legged, invertebrate animals, including spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.

Braddy said the fossil was from a Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae, a kind of scorpion that lived only in Germany for about 10 million years, about 400 million years ago.

He said some geologists believe that gigantic sea scorpions evolved due to higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere in the past. Others suspect they evolved in an "arms race" alongside their likely prey, fish that had armor on their outer bodies.

Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be.

"The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates — backboned animals like ourselves."

That competition ended long ago.

But the next time you swat a fly, or squish a spider at home, Braddy said, try to "think about the insects that lived long ago. You wouldn't want to swat one of those."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071121/...ggest_bug_ever

Pretty crazy if you ask me...new discoveries never cease to amaze.

[Jerseyfresh84]

holy fuck. imagine if bugs were that size today? wow cool find thanks

[Throatpoker]

That'd be f-ing scary to find.

[kvolcom]

at least it wouldnt be able to hide in your shoe and sting you...

[Theprospect26]

No, instead it would just hunt you down like prey and sting the shit out of you.

[xceptionalguysd]

Dominant for millions of years...

Then wiped out? yeah at the rate bugs reproduce they would have killed and ate everything in the seas. Including fish with jaws. Where would these fish with jaws have came from? They would have had to evolved to their state of having jaws from not having jaws. Meaning the billions of 8 foot sea scorpions would have consumed them along with everything else in the oceans. Common sense tells us that the writers aren't using any common sense at all when writing this article.

[LozanoJ1985]

Didnt the makeup of the air contribute to the size of insects/arachnids?

[xceptionalguysd]

water canopy. However... this is a sea creature, not a land creature. The atmosphere was/had to be different. The issue is, what changed it? What cataclysmic event happened in order to change this atmosphere and when? My opinion is a great flood, however I have yet to hear any other viable opinions on this thicker atmospher with 30% more oxygen in it.

[rhode warrior]

Originally Posted by xceptionalguysd

Dominant for millions of years...

Then wiped out? yeah at the rate bugs reproduce they would have killed and ate everything in the seas. Including fish with jaws. Where would these fish with jaws have came from? They would have had to evolved to their state of having jaws from not having jaws. Meaning the billions of 8 foot sea scorpions would have consumed them along with everything else in the oceans. Common sense tells us that the writers aren't using any common sense at all when writing this article.

Go ahead and make a fool out of yourself.

No one is stopping you.

[xceptionalguysd]

LOL. That article is crap. Fish with armor? What would be the purpose of developing this? They couldn't swim as good, before they developed it they would have already been eaten. So they were competing with each other and that's why they evolved this way? over what period of time? That's just hypothetical BS that sounds like it came from L. Ron Hubbard himself. You can't possibly believe a story like this can you?