Brontoscorpio anglicus
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Brontoscorpio anglicus |
Brontoscorpio anglicus ("English Thunder Scorpion") was a 1-meter long, aquatic scorpion that lived during the Silurian period. When alive, B. anglicus would have resembled an oversized scorpion, albeit with relatively large (for a scorpion) compound eyes, and was an important predator of its time, given as how the arthropods were among the largest animals on Earth during the Silurian.
[edit] Suggested Ecology and Lifestyle
Obviously, given as how all post-Paleozoic scorpions are all terrestrial, and that many of the known Paleozoic scorpions, such as Paleophonus, made the transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments during the Silurian, it has been strongly inferred that B. anglicus was capable of leaving the water and entering land, whether to evade other predators, such as large nautiloids, eurypterids, or even other aquatic scorpions, or pursue prey, such as other, smaller terrestrial scorpions. However, given its great size, B. anglicus had to remain in water, where it would be relieved of supporting its own weight, or at the very least, return to the water whenever it molted its exoskeleton, as on land, it would otherwise be crushed by its own weight. Marine scorpions such as B. anglicus, captured, stung, and ate small sea animals such as fish like acanthodians, heterostracans, smaller scorpions and trilobites.
[edit] Form and Anatomy
As with other arachnids, such as modern scorpions, B. anglicus breathed through gas exchange via pores in its exoskeleton, and the inner linings of its book lungs (book lungs are a series of thin sacs within the abdomen of some arthropods that connect with the outside, drawing in water (or possibly air) in order to facillitate gas exchange). It had a poisonous stinger that, according to Walking with Monsters, was the size of a light bulb.
[edit] Popular Culture
Brontoscorpio was featured in the first episode of the BBC TV series Walking With Monsters, where it erroneously shown preying on the early armored jawless fish Cephalaspis, only to be attacked and eaten, in turn, by the enormous eurypterid Pterygotus.
It was highly unlikely that B. anglicus preyed on Cephalaspis, as the latter is found only in early Devonian strata, and the former is found only in late Silurian strata. It was possible, however, that B. anglicus preyed on Cephalaspis' Silurian relatives, such as Ateleaspis, Procephalaspis, and Tremataspis.
