Gigantoscorpio

Gigantoscorpio
Temporal range: Visean, 345.0–342.8 Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Scorpiones
Family: †Gigantoscorpionidae
Genus: †Gigantoscorpio
Størmer, 1963
Species:
†G. willsi
Binomial name
†Gigantoscorpio willsi
Størmer, 1963

Gigantoscorpio willsi is an extinct species of scorpion which lived between 345.0 million and 342.8 million years ago, during the Visean age of the Carboniferous. Its type and only specimen is BMNH In. 42706a,b, In. 42707, which is a 3D body fossil of its exoskeleton found near modern-day United Kingdom. Three other specimens (GSE 2134, GSE 2137 and GSE 2174) were previously referred to this genus, but subsequent analyses disagreed with this referral and reclassified them as indeterminate scorpions. Based on the incomplete holotype, Gigantoscorpio is initially estimated at 36.5 cm (14.4 in) or 28–42 cm (11–17 in) long, but subsequently estimated at 39–44 cm (15–17 in) long.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Størmer, Leif (1963). Gigantoscorpio willsi – A new scorpion from the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland and its associated preying microorganisms. Oslo University Press.
  2. ↑ "Gigantoscorpio willsi - Overview - Encyclopedia of Life". Encyclopedia of Life.
  3. ↑ "Gigantoscorpio willsi". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  4. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database".
  5. ↑ "Fossilworks: Gigantoscorpio".
  6. ↑ Kjellesvig-Waering, E. N. (1986). "A restudy of the fossil Scorpionida of the world". Palaeontographica Americana. 55: 1–287.
  7. ↑ Jeram, Andrew J. (1993). "Scorpions from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland, with a revision of the infraorder Mesoscorpionina". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 84 (3–4): 283–299. doi:10.1017/S0263593300006106. ISSN 1755-6910.
  8. ↑ Kjellesvig-Waering, Erik N. (1972). "Brontoscorpio anglicus: A Gigantic Lower Paleozoic Scorpion from Central England". Journal of Paleontology. 46 (1): 39–42. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1302906.