Megalograptus
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Extinct (fossil)
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Megalograptus (Greek for "big writing") is a four-foot long Ordovician eurypterid, and was among the earliest known genera. It was named so because its first fossils were of its very spiny legs, which were mistaken for massive graptolites. It lived from 460 to 445 mya. Megalograptus preyed on fish, trilobites, other sea scorpions, and smaller orthocones with the exception of adult Cameroceras. Megalograptus did not have a stinger, but may have curled its tail and sword-like telson forward as a threat pose, much like a scorpion.
It was featured in the Ordovician episode of the BBC's Sea Monsters series, where they were imagined to have behaved similarly to horseshoe crabs, coming to shore to breed and lay eggs in the surf and sand.
