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C9177 t1_iye1f7c wrote

Am 8 foot long scorpion sounds positively terrifying.

Seems like there were so many good reasons to stay outta the water way back then.

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BryceSchafer t1_iyefm1a wrote

These were likely dominant predators of their era- apex animals. At the time (seemingly) the only good defense mechanism that was in widespread use was exoskeletons or shells, aka imagine more water-bugs with thick carapace and shelled sea creatures like clams/conch or shelled squids. I imagine these guys as aqua tanks; I can see them scuttling over and crushing other creatures flat, then prying open the shells, and finally getting all the sustenance from within hard-fought crevices.

I could be mincing my early earth time periods a bit so if anyone weighs in that’s fine, but from my understanding these guys fell off once more advanced fish species began to be able to compete with them for prey. The Dunkleosteus, a family of armored and bone-jawed fish largely came to outcompete them and are thought to possibly be their usurper for what would be the Apex Predator of the era following the sea scorpions.

People get pretty excited about the idea of a sperm whale and a giant squid dunking it out but I’m tryna hop in a time machine and watch a 9 foot demon scorpion fight 1500 pound fish who’s pro wrestling name would be ‘Bite Force’; this shit would look like the ending of Aliens with the loader fight got dayum.

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benefit_of_mrkite t1_iyere0j wrote

Replying to C9177 (#818,428)

I’ve read about these several times and they remind me more of a lobster like creature rather than a scorpion - all three being arthropods.

The “stinger” is thought to be a sex organ.

The big ones were just one they diversified from very large to very small.

But to give you an idea on size of the biggest here you go;

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaekelopterus#/media/File%3AJaekelopterus_Size_2.svg

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