What are Eurypterids?
Eurypterids also called sea scorpions for the similarity to todays scorpion was a terrifying predator that lived in shallow warm water in the Ordovician time period and the last couple went extinct in the Permian period. These periods occurred in the Paleozoic Era. Most Eurypterids have been found in brackish or fresh water. Some of the earliest may have lived in the sea and fresh water during the Pennsylvanian period. Some Eurypterids have also been known to have spent short periods of time on land, and have been known as one of the only arthropod predators unlike the thousands of species of Trilobites. In fact, Trilobites were the prey of Eurypterids. The most common ancestors are the horseshoe crabs and land scorpions. Body Structure of Eurypterids Eurypterids were basically large, flat, and had jointed sections. The bottom half of Eurypterids included a flexible tail with a long spine. The spiked tail of the Eurypterids was said to be used by injecting venom into its prey sort of l
Eurypterids, also known as sea scorpions, are an extinct class of arthropods that were related to modern-day marine chelicerates such as horseshoe crabs and spiders. Eurypterids grew from a few inches to the huge Jaekelopterus, which reached 2.5 m (8.2 ft) or more in length and competes with the Carboniferous myriapod (centipede-relative) Arthropleura for the title of largest arthropod of all time. A typical eurypterid was only 20 cm (8 in) in size, however. 200 fossil species are known. Eurypterids existed for almost half the total duration of known multicellular life, from approximately 510 to 251 million years ago. In contrast, mammals have only existed for only about half that time, and dinosaurs a little more than half. Because they emerged almost at the beginning of the Paleozoic era and died out at the end, eurypterids are considered an iconic Paleozoic organism. Eurypterids went extinct during the Permian-Triassic extinction, the most severe mass extinct in Earth’s history. Fro
