Palaeontologists describe new examples of giant sea scorpions from the Silurian and Devonian periods of New South Wales

A team of paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Australian Museum Research Institute and the W. B. Clarke Geoscience Centre in Australia have added new evidence for pterygotid eurypterids from the Silurian and Devonian of New South Wales. Their paper is published in the journal Research on Gondwana.

There once existed a group of giant sea scorpions belonging to the family Pterygotidae, some as large as an adult human, all belonging to a group of arthropods called eurypterids. They lived about 444 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era. No trace of their existence has been found for 393 million years, suggesting an extinction due to environmental change.

The research team found that little evidence of pterygotids in what is now Australia had been found, largely due to a lack of research. To address this, they studied rock formations in New South Wales that had evidence of these ancient creatures and found what they describe as new examples of pterygotid eurypterids, one dating from the Silurian (443.8 to 419.2 million years ago) and the other from the Devonian (419.2 to 358.9 million years ago).

The researchers noted that the fossils were mostly exoskeletons, one from a Pterygotus, the other from a Jaekelopterus, which were the largest species of sea scorpions. They were nearly identical to others that had been found around the supercontinent Gondwana. This discovery, the researchers note, suggests that the creatures had the ability to cross the ocean, a journey that would have taken thousands of miles.

The research team suggests that gigantism may have played a role in their ability to migrate such long distances, although they note that the cause and effect could have been the other way around. Additionally, their sudden extinction remains a mystery. The researchers plan to continue their research, hoping to discover why.

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