Scottish Eurypterid, prehistoric ‘scorpion’, bigger than human described

This video is about an Eurypterid fossil.

From World Science:

Scorpion bigger than human described

Nov. 30, 2005

Courtesy Nature and World Science staff

A geologist working in Scotland has uncovered footprints that he says come from a fearsome water scorpion bigger than a human.

The tracks were made about 330 million years ago by a six-legged creature called Hibbertopterus, according to Martin Whyte of the University of Sheffield, U.K.

Hibbertopterus was some 1.6 metres (5¼ feet) long and a metre (3¼ feet) wide, he added.

The tracks show that this now-extinct group of animals, previously thought to dwell in water only, could also survive on land, according to Whyte.

At around the same time as the creature lived, scientists believe our own [amphibian] four-limbed ancestors were also making their first steps towards leaving the water and colonizing the land.

The six-metre-long trackway reveals strides that were 27 cm (11 inches) long, and also features a central groove left by the creature’s dragging tail, according to Whyte.

This, he added, shows the creature was probably a very slow, lumbering beast when moving on land.

Whyte described the finding in the Dec. 1 issue of the research journal Nature.