Sea scorpions no longer live in our oceans, which is actually good news in a way. Because even land-dwelling scorpions are not very friendly creatures. Researchers made a spectacular discovery when they closely examined a fossil that had been in the Queensland museum in Australia for years. The research showed that this fossil belonged to a long-extinct sea monster.
The museum said in a statement that the sea scorpion reached about 1 meter in size and looked exactly like a sea monster. The fossil of this creature, which once lived in the lakes and rivers around what is now the city of Theodore, is the first fossil of a scorpion ever discovered in Queensland.
Sea scorpion fossils about the size of a dog have been found before, but they belonged near the Chinese coast. This newly discovered species was named Woodwardopterus freemanorum.
Sea scorpions are ancient relatives of modern scorpions and other arthropods. The scorpion found on Theodore was one of the largest marine predators of my time, but we needn’t worry about it anymore.
7615
