- Published on: 02 April 2019
- Try Audible for 30 days visit https://www.audible.com/eons or text eons to 500500!
Sea scorpions thrived for 200 million years, coming in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Over time, they developed a number of adaptations--from crushing claws to flattened tails for swimming. And some of them adapted by getting so big that they still hold the record as the largest arthropods of all time.
Thank you to these paleoartists for allowing us to use their wonderful illustrations:
Franz Anthony: https://252mya.com/gallery/franz-anthony
Ceri Thomas: http://alphynix.tumblr.com/
Lucas Lima: https://252mya.com/gallery/lucas-lima
Julio Lacerda: https://252mya.com/gallery/julio-lacerda
Nobu Tamura: https://spinops.blogspot.com/
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, Robert Amling, Po Foon Kwong, Larry Wilson, Merri Snaidman, Renzo Caimi Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan
If you'd like to support the channel, head over to http://patreon.com/eons and pledge for some cool rewards!
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow
Twitter - https://twitter.com/eonsshow
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/eonsshow/
References:
Braddy, Simon J., Richard J. Aldridge, Sarah E. Gabbott, and Johannes N. Theron. "Lamellate book-gills in a late Ordovician eurypterid from the Soom Shale, South Africa: support for a eurypterid-scorpion clade." Lethaia 32, no. 1 (1999): 72-74.
Braddy, Simon J., Markus Poschmann, and O. Erik Tetlie. "Giant claw reveals the largest ever arthropod." Biology Letters 4, no. 1 (2007): 106-109. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2007.0491
Brezinski, David K., and Albert D. Kollar. "Reevaluation of the Age and Provenance of the Giant Palmichnium kosinskiorum Eurypterid Trackway, from Elk County, Pennsylvania." Annals of Carnegie Museum 84, no. 1 (2016): 39-45.
Briggs, Derek EG, and WD Ian Rolfe. "A giant arthropod trackway from the Lower Mississippian of Pennsylvania." Journal of Paleontology (1983): 377-390. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1304661.pdf?seq=1
Elliott, David K., and Michael A. Petriello. "New poraspids (Agnatha, Heterostraci) from the Early Devonian of the western United States." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31, no. 3 (2011): 518-530.
Lamsdell, James C., and Simon J. Braddy. "Cope's Rule and Romer's theory: patterns of diversity and gigantism in eurypterids and Palaeozoic vertebrates." Biology Letters (2009): doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0700
Lamsdell, James C., Simon J. Braddy, and O. Erik Tetlie. "Redescription of Drepanopterus abonensis (Chelicerata: Eurypterida: Stylonurina) from the Late Devonian of Portishead, UK." Palaeontology 52, no. 5 (2009): 1113-1139.
Legg, David A. "Sanctacaris uncata: the oldest chelicerate (Arthropoda). "Naturwissenschaften 101, no. 12 (2014): 1065-1073.
Manning, P. L. and Dunlop, J. A. “The respiratory organs of eurypterids.” Palaeontology, 38, no. 2 (1995): 287–297.
McCoy, Victoria E., James C. Lamsdell, Markus Poschmann, Ross P. Anderson, and Derek EG Briggs. "All the better to see you with: eyes and claws reveal the evolution of divergent ecological roles in giant pterygotid eurypterids." Biology letters 11, no. 8 (2015): 20150564.
Poschmann, Markus, Brigitte Schoenemann, and Victoria E. McCoy. "Telltale eyes: the lateral visual systems of Rhenish Lower Devonian eurypterids (Arthropoda, Chelicerata) and their palaeobiological implications." Palaeontology 59, no. 2 (2016): 295-304.
Selden, P. A., and John David Lawson. "Eurypterid respiration." Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 309, no. 1138 (1985): https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1985.0081
Tetlie, O. Erik. "Distribution and dispersal history of Eurypterida (Chelicerata)." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 252, no. 3-4 (2007): 557-574. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6434/bc6cdbfd7613c5dc725333a5b003975c6c50.pdf
Vrazo, Matthew B., and Simon J. Braddy. "Testing the ‘mass-moult-mate’hypothesis of eurypterid palaeoecology." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 311, no. 1-2 (2011): 63-73.
Whyte, Martin A. "Palaeoecology: a gigantic fossil arthropod trackway." Nature 438, no. 7068 (2005): 576. - Runtime : 11:41
- dinosaurs dinos paleo paleontology scishow eons pbs pbs digital studios hank green john green complexly fossils natural history jawless fish sea scorpions Jaekelopterus Silurian Devonian placoderms arthropods eurypterids scorpions Stylonuria Chelicerata arachnids telsons claws Eurytperina Hibbertopterus kiemenplatten The Great Dying
COMMENTS: 40
-
G G 1 days agoChannels like this are a reminder that one doesn't need to look at the Universe... The Earth was strange enough.
-
Hadleigh Martin 2 days ago
When the lobsters saw all the giant fish popping up in their area"They're bringing drugs, they're rapists, I'm sure some of them are nice fish"
-
Mateo A. 3 weeks ago
Sooo.. Just saw a video from 2017 where apparently what seems to be a prehistoric sea scorpion kills a shark... Now I'm scared.
-
CthulhuianBunny 1 months ago
"A big weirdo called Hibbertopterus." Recognizable by its laugh and lab coat.
-
Per Erik 1 months ago
I want outtakes and blooper reels. With all these difficult names i bet theres more than a few blooper reels 😉
-
Ashengel Ignisnocte 1 months ago
I always saw lobsters as mermaid scorpions... I was hoping at the end seeing them linked but I guess I should better study this... 😅😅😅
-
Christian Piette 2 months ago
The extant Japanese spider crab grows to 18ft, so when you say large what do you mean maybe the Heaviest could sound better.
-
Ed Tolson 2 months ago
I'm always impressed by the speed and fluency of the narration, especially when there are several Latin names in succession!
-
X X 2 months ago
I'm rather disappointed. I expected to hear "Silurian: Age of Sea Scorpions" by the Ocean Collective playing in the background. How am I supposed to enjoy the sheer magnitude of these creatures without headbanging to some extremely fine post-metal?
-
François-Xavier Dessureault 2 months ago
whoah wait how do paleontologists have any idea about the blood (haemolymph?) salinity of eurypterids? I'm sure there's an explanation but I can't guess how that can be figured out from the fossil record
-
Marino Torre 3 months ago
When sea spiders (Pycnogonida or Pantopoda) are mentioned towards the end of the video, a picture of an arrow crab is shown, which is a crustacean, not a chelicerate.
-
Micha B 3 months ago
"Kiemenplatten" is just German for "gill plates". Also, FYI it's pronounced "kee-men"
-
Trash your Fash and Bash 3 months ago
TIL that car-sized gigascorpions and butterflies are part of the same animal family. I guess we're all connected if you go back far enough. What even is life?
Hi everyone! Thanks for the heads up about the flash frames in the video. The issue appears to have resolved on its own? I hope you were still able enjoy this video about these enormous and terrifying arthropods. -Seth