Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Giant bug fossil found

A fossilized claw of a 8 feet long sea scorpion, living 390 million years ago, has been discovered. This is the largest insect ever discovered according to the article, though it's speculated that Arthropleuridae could be as long as 10 feet.

The paper about the discovery can be found at the Royal Society's Biology Letters (link to abstract), which unfortunately is behind a pay-wall.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Rana said...

As someone who constantly argues against species-ism, it pains me to say this, but aren't scorpions definitely not insects? I thought they were fairly closely related to spiders. Eight legs not six. But these distinctions are all specious anyway ;)

November 22, 2007 10:16 PM  
Blogger Kristjan Wager said...

I was actually thinking the same while writing this, but I think that there might be a difference between "sea scorpions" and regular scorpions (which certainly aren't insects as such).

The abstract refers to them as arthropods.

November 23, 2007 6:31 AM  
Blogger baby said...

I beleive in prehistoric times things were bigger.
And yes scorpions are related to the spider family.

December 05, 2007 4:27 PM  
Blogger baby said...

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December 05, 2007 4:29 PM  
Blogger baby said...

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December 05, 2007 4:31 PM  

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