Eurypterida

Searched as Eurypterida indet.. The Paleobiology Database treats Eurypterida as the accepted name.

Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct marine arthropods that form the order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Tremadocian stage of the Ordovician period, 480 million years ago. The group is likely to have appeared first during the Late Cambrian period. With approximately 250 species, the Eurypterida is the most diverse Paleozoic chelicerate order. Following their appearance during the Ordovician, eurypterids became major components of marine faunas during the Silurian, from which the majority of eurypterid species have been described. The Silurian genus Eurypterus accounts for more than 90% of all known eurypterid specimens. Though the group continued to diversify during the subsequent Devonian period, the eurypterids were heavily affected by the Late Devonian extinction event. They declined in numbers and diversity during the Permian period, though their time of extinction remains contentious, argued to be either the early Middle Permian, or the Permian–Triassic extinction event 251.9 million years ago.

Eurypterida

H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
eurypteridPBDB
Sits inside
ChelicerataPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB
Life habit
nektobenthicPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB
Vision
well-developedPBDB

Time the record covers

At least 145 million years on record.

The record covers at least 449.6 Mya to 303.7 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 457.3 Mya to 293.52 Mya.

Ordovician — about 3 of 48 occurrencesOrdovicianSilurian — about 14 of 48 occurrencesSilurianDevonian — about 22 of 48 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 8 of 48 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 1 of 48 occurrences461–455 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences455–449 Mya — about 1 occurrence449–444 Mya — about 1 occurrence444–438 Mya — about 1 occurrence438–432 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences432–427 Mya — about 4 occurrences427–421 Mya — about 6 occurrences421–415 Mya — about 10 occurrences415–409 Mya — about 10 occurrences409–404 Mya — about 1 occurrence404–398 Mya — about 1 occurrence398–392 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences392–387 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences387–381 Mya — about 1 occurrence324–319 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences319–313 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences307–302 Mya — about 4 occurrences302–296 Mya — about 4 occurrences296–290 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences449.6 Mya303.7 Mya461 Mya290 Mya

48 occurrences of Eurypterida on record, most of them in the Devonian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

48 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

28 formations

Wild Cow — 34.75°N, 106.25°WWild Cow — 34.95°N, 106.30°WHuixingshao — 28.55°N, 108.85°EPimenteira — 7.00°S, 42.00°WPimenteira — 7.08°S, 41.65°WNormanskill — 42.65°N, 73.76°WOak Orchard — 43.21°N, 75.46°WRadotinkalk — 49.01°N, 13.75°ESt. Maughans — 52.00°N, 2.00°WDownton Castle Sandstone — 51.37°N, 2.73°WBathurst Island — 75.82°N, 98.41°WKotys Limestone — 49.93°N, 14.18°EStonehouse — 45.62°N, 61.97°WBertie — 42.93°N, 75.12°WPointe aux Chenes — 45.87°N, 84.73°WRead Bay — 75.00°N, 95.00°WJoggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°WBursum — 34.83°N, 106.91°WGamoneda — 21.50°S, 64.00°WSerra Grande — 7.00°S, 42.00°WUpper Longhope Beds — 52.00°N, 2.00°WBorshchov and Chortkov horizons — 51.42°N, 23.33°EWabash — 40.49°N, 86.13°WRochester Shale — 43.20°N, 78.46°WDelorme — 62.55°N, 127.75°WDulladerry Volcanics — 33.68°S, 148.54°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Eurypterida has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 4 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 13 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eurypterida and its relatives

Devonian

Where Eurypterida and its relatives were recorded in the Devonian.

Found in the same rock

1,633 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 311 sites for Eurypterida, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

30 references

Each of the 48 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 18 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Eurypterida

Credit
H. Zell
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itChelicerata through timeFormations of the DevonianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Huxley 1857)