China’s oldest known sea scorpion found

Eurypterids, colloquially known as sea scorpions, are a major extinct group of Paleozoic chelicerate arthropods. They first appeared in the Ordovician, reached their maximum diversity in the late Silurian and early Devonian, and became extinct in the late Permian.

With a striking morphology and great ecological diversity, they occupied marine, freshwater and even terrestrial environments.

There has been a great lack of knowledge about the Ordovician eurypterids. To date, only 12 species of Ordovician eurypterids are known in the world, so any reported occurrence is of great importance to better understand their early evolutionary history.

Paleontologists have made the first scientific description of an extinct eurypterid that was previously unknown.

The study is the work of the international team of Han Wang, from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The new species is called Archopterus anjiensis and is also from a new genus. The individual whose fossil remains have been examined dates from the Ordovician period.

Recreation of what a typical adult individual of Archopterus anjiensis most likely looked like in life. (Image: Dinghua Yang)

The finding will contribute to a better understanding of the early evolution of eurypterids on the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.

The study is titled “The first documentation of an Ordovician eurypterid (Chelicerata) from China”. And it has been published in the academic journal Journal of Paleontology. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)