Eurypterus
Searched as Eurypterus remipes flintstonensis. The Paleobiology Database treats Eurypterus as the accepted name.
Eurypterus is an extinct genus of eurypterid, a group of organisms commonly called "sea scorpions". The genus lived during the Silurian period, from around 432 to 418 million years ago. Eurypterus is by far the most well-studied and well-known eurypterid. Eurypterus fossil specimens probably represent more than 95% of all known eurypterid specimens.
Luis Fernández García · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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- Sits inside
- EurypteridaePBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Eurypterida
- Life habit
- nektobenthicPBDB, for Eurypterida
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Eurypterida
- Vision
- well-developedPBDB, for Eurypterida
Time the record covers
At most 7.1 million years on record.
The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 426.7 Mya and 419.62 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.
1 occurrence of Eurypterus on record, most of them in the Silurian. 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
1 occurrences- Silurian100%
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
1 formation
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Eurypterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.
Eurypterus and its relatives
SilurianWhere Eurypterus and its relatives were recorded in the Silurian.
Found in the same rock
245 taxa- Pterygotus14 sites
- Leperditia13 sites
- Mixopterus9 sites
- Camarotoechia8 sites
- Bivalvia6 sites
- Cephalopoda6 sites
- Gastropoda6 sites
- Lingulidae6 sites
- Nanahughmilleria6 sites
- Orbiculoidea6 sites
- Ostracoda6 sites
- Carcinosoma5 sites
- Dolichopterus5 sites
- Erettopterus5 sites
- Erieopterus5 sites
- Lingula5 sites
- Medusaegraptus5 sites
- Howellella4 sites
- Hughmilleria4 sites
- Phyllocarida4 sites
- Whitfieldella4 sites
- Acutiramus macrophthalmus3 sites
- Bryozoa3 sites
- Ceratiocaris3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Eurypterus, and this reads all 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
1 referenceEach of the 1 occurrence 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Eurypterus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Luis Fernández García
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC0 Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Eurypterus”
- 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 itEurypteridae through timeFormations of the SilurianThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. De Kay 1825