In Depth Yawunik has been a very big insight into how modern arthropods may have developed the features that they are known for. In modern (and most prehistoric forms), different functions such as sense, grasping, walking, etc. are usually divided to specific body parts. In Yawunik however you can see body parts adapted that are … Read more
In Depth Sidneyia is thought to have been a carnivore of other bottom dwelling marine organisms, scouring the ocean floor and sensing them out with its antennae. So far Sidneyia is known from well over a hundred specimens, with many more likely to yet be found. Individuals ran from about five centimetres to just under … Read more
In Depth With the first individuals initially described as a species of the Cancer genus, Metacarcinus is a genus of crab that not only has some living species today, but a number of prehistoric ones too. Some of these species such as M. starri and M. goederti are known from deposits as old as the … Read more
In Depth A good example of the large arthropods that dominated the world before invertebrates took over, it has been surmised that Brontoscorpio was aquatic. Unfortunately the only known part of this ancient scorpion is the pedipalp, and it is from comparison of this body part to other known specimens that the size estimate has … Read more
In Depth Attercopus was spider-like, but was not a true spider. Attercopus had a segmented tail and silk producing organs, but probably only used silk for constructing shelters and wrapping eggs, rather than constructing elaborate webs. Further Reading - New terrestrial arachnids from the Devonian of Gilboa, New York. - American Museum Novitates 2901: 1–74. … Read more
In Depth Baltimartyria is a genus of moth that lived in Russia during the Eocene. Further Reading - Study on the Lepidoptera from fossil resins. Part XI. Baltimartyria, a new genus for Micropteryx proavittella Rebel, 1936, with redescription of this species (Lepidoptera, Zeugloptera, Micropterigidae). - Amber & Fossils 1:26-37. - A. W. Skalski - 1995. … Read more
In Depth Out of all the Cambrian era arthropods so far named, Aegirocassis has certainly been one of the most remarkable. Obviously the thing that most people notice about Aegirocassis is the huge size, at just over two meters in length for the largest recorded specimen, Aegirocassis was in 2015 the largest anomalocaridid so far … Read more
In Depth Arthropleura is a contender for the biggest arthropod of all time, and like with other arthropods of the Carboniferous period, this gigantism has been attributed to the greater abundance of oxygen in the atmosphere of this time. Many fossilised track ways have also been preserved with some even showing Arthropleura moving around trees … Read more
In Depth When it comes to the study of eurypterids, the type genus Eurypterus is the one you need to be most familiar with since the vast majority of known eurypterid fossils belong to this genus. It should be noted however that many of these fossils are of shed exoskeletons and that fossils of actual … Read more
In Depth Electromyrmococcus is a genus of mealybug that lived in the Dominican Republic during the Miocene. At the time of writing there are three species assigned to the genus. Further Reading - Descriptions of a new genus and three new species of Rhizoecinae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) associated with ants of the genus Acropyga Roger in … Read more