Relax, it died 390m years ago – huge scorpion find points to existence of giant spiders
· Claw find in quarry makes scientists think again
· Arthropods may have been bigger than thought
* Steven Morris
* Wednesday November 21 2007
It is enough to give people with arachnophobia a large dose of the heebie-jeebies. Scientists have discovered the fossilised claw of a sea scorpion that suggests the giant scorpions, spiders and crabs that once crawled around the world were even bigger than previously thought.
Found in a German quarry, the claw is 46cm (18ins) long, suggesting the sea scorpion was 2.5m (8ft) long – almost two feet longer that it was previously thought the aquatic creatures grew to. Because land-based scorpions and spiders are believed to have descended from the sea scorpion, scientist believe the discovery means that they also may have been even bigger than had been believed.
Dr Simon Braddy from the department of earth sciences at the University of Bristol, co-author of an article about the find, said: “This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realised, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were. I think the claws on this creature would have been powerful enough to rip someone to shreds.” Fortunately for mankind, humans were not on the scene until millions of years later.
The claw was found by scientist Markus Poschmann in rocks 390m years old at a quarry near Prüm in Germany. The research is published online in the Royal Society’s journal Biology Letters.
The name of the fossil sea scorpion is Jaekelopterus rhenaniae. See also here. And here. And here. And here.
A missing link in the evolution of the front claw of living scorpions and horseshoe crabs was identified with the discovery of a 390 million-year-old fossil by researchers at Yale and the University of Bonn, Germany: here. And here.
Antarctic Hot Springs Yields Ghostly New Species. A “Yeti” crab, seven-legged seastar and a pale octopus discovered around the vent are reshaping theories on marine life: here.
Giant insects disappeared thanks to falling oxygen levels and agile birds: here.
In natural history museum Naturalis in Leiden, from 30 November on, people will be able to see 47 million year old fossils. The fossils were found in a quarry in the village of Messel, close to Darmstadt in Germany. …
The 125 fossils are in an excellent state. Sometimes, even hair or contents of the intestines can be discerned. The travelling exhibition ‘Messel on tour‘ is property of the Hessisches Landesmuseum. Naturalis is the first museum where the fossils are going, before continuing their journey across Europe.
Climatic Chain Reaction Caused Runaway Greenhouse Effect 55 Million Years Ago: here.
In the “Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg” in Frankfurt, on 20 September 2007, Dr. Peter Jäger, head of the arachnology section and president of the “Arachnologische Gesellschaft e. V.” declared the giant house spider (Tegenaria) to be the “Spider of the Year 2008″. …
Though the giant house spider is not poisonous and is also not dangerous in any other way, its looks have given spiders a bad reputation with many people. With its body length of about 10 to 16 millimeter and its leg width of up to 10 centimeter it often evokes disgust when seen with a contrasting background of a washing bowl or a bathtub.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences revealed an initial shortlist of films which will be whittled down to five nominees in January before the Oscars are handed out at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24.
While the 15 films took in a broad range of subjects — from political hot-button issues such as abortion and gays in the church — war and its effects emerged as the dominant theme of the shortlist.
No fewer than eight of the films deal with issues related to conflicts past and present, with documentaries about the U.S.-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan particularly prevalent.
Among them are Charles Ferguson’s “No End in Sight,” which critiques the planning before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The death of an Afghan taxi driver in U.S. custody at a military base is the subject of “Taxi to the Dark Side,” which deals with America’s policy on torture and interrogation.
Meanwhile, “Nanking,” a film chronicling the horrors of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, in which some 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered by Japanese troops, also made the shortlist. The film was inspired by author Iris Chang’s 1997 bestseller “The Rape of Nanking.”
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are the subject of “White Light/Black Rain“, director Steven Okazaki’s look at the legacy of mankind’s first use of nuclear weapons in war.
The shortlist also includes Sicko, by Michael Moore.
Dino de luxe – a Berlin museum presents the biggest dinosaur skeleton in the world
150 million years ago, Brachiosaurus brancai walked across the savannas. It was a 50 ton monster, able to raise its head up to 15 meter high. And that is exactly what is doing again right now – in the Berliner Museum für Naturkunde. As the museum succeeded in an elaborate reconstruction – thanks to results of new research – to correct some mistakes made during the earlier reconstruction of the skeleton. A skeleton, found about 100 years ago in what is today Tanzania.
Spain’s Congress recently passed the Law of Historical Memory, which for the first time officially condemns the mass executions and other crimes carried out during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the military dictatorship of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975) that followed.
About 500,000 people were killed in the civil war, and an estimated 200,000 died during the dictatorship, the majority of whom still lie buried in unmarked mass graves.
The new law describes the crimes as unjust and the sentences of the courts and military tribunals as illegitimate. It offers redress to those “who suffered persecution or violence, for political or ideological reasons, during the Civil War or the Dictatorship” and facilitates the exhumation of the mass graves. It also calls for the removal of Francoist symbols from public buildings and prohibits political events at Franco’s mausoleum in the Valley of the Fallen. Spanish citizenship is offered to the grandchildren of those exiled during the dictatorship and to members of the International Brigades who went to fight against it.
After nearly three years delay, and with few commentators thinking it would go through before next March’s general elections, Congress passed the law by 184 votes to 137. …
“This is a very important moment for Spain,” said Emilio Silva, who heads the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, “But this law is the beginning, not the end, and it is long overdue,” he added. …
The new law has been watered down in significant ways and makes major concessions to the right wing. Nevertheless, it does indeed shatter the so-called “consensus,” threatening to bring to the surface all the unresolved political problems of the civil war, the victory of the fascists and the ensuing decades of repression.
The Mexican Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (that’s their EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service all rolled into one) released a study entitled “A Barrier to Our Shared Environment: The Border Wall between Mexico and the United States”. According to the report, the border wall that is being constructed by U.S. government contractors could cause floods, the extirpation of 11 animal species with the interruption of their migration routes, and the fragmentation of flora and fauna populations.
The jaguar, the Mexican gray wolf and the bison are among the species that would be adversely impacted.
