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 Last
week, British scientists found the fossilized claw of a 2.5-meter sea scorpion
in Germany. The sea scorpion was a monstrous creature that lived before
the age of dinosaurs. Researchers
at Bristol University said last Wednesday that the discovery of the 390-million-year-old
fossil showed that prehistoric spiders, insects
and crabs were much larger than previously thought. The claw
of the sea scorpion measured 46 centimeters long.
"This is an amazing discovery," said university researcher
Simon Braddy. "We have known for some time that the fossil record
yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, gigantic cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies. But we
never realized, until now, just how big some of these ancient creatures
were." No one knows why prehistoric arthropods grew so large.
Arthropods are creatures with external skeletons and segmented bodies. Some scientists
believe they may have become giants because of the higher levels of
oxygen in the atmosphere in the past. The
find was described by Braddy and his colleagues in the journal Biology
Letters. |
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