Largest Known Scorpion, 415 Million Years Old Discovered

Scientists have confirmed that a giant scorpion, which roamed ancient floodplains approximately 415 million years ago, is the largest species ever discovered. The creature, named Praearcturus gigas, measured about one meter long and wielded formidable pincers over 16 centimeters in length.

The identification, detailed in a new study published in the journal Palaeontology, reclassifies fossils that have puzzled researchers for over a century. Originally described in 1871 and misidentified as a giant crustacean similar to a woodlouse, the specimen spent more than 150 years in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. Advanced imaging techniques and comparisons with better-preserved fossils have now allowed paleontologists to definitively classify it as a scorpion.

Lead author Dr. Richard Howard, curator of fossil arthropods at the Natural History Museum, stated that confirming the animal is a scorpion fundamentally changes the understanding of how and when these creatures evolved to such sizes. The creature lived during the Early Devonian period, at least 50 million years before the Carboniferous era, which is famous for its giant insects. At that time, only simple...