Pulmonoscorpius

Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis is an extinct species of giant scorpion[1] that lived during the Viséan age of the Carboniferous period.

Pulmonoscorpius
Temporal range: Viséan
~338 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Scorpiones
Family: †Centromachidae
Genus: †Pulmonoscorpius
Jeram, 1994
Species:
†Pulmonoscorpius
Binomial name
†Pulmonoscorpius
Jeram, 1994
Species
  • Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis Jeram, 1994

Taxonomy

The name derives from "Latin pulmonis, a lung, and Greek skorpios, a scorpion"[2]

Its fossils were found in the East Kirkton Limestone at East Kirkton Quarry, West Lothian in Scotland. The diet of Pulmonoscorpius is not known directly, but it is probably that it preyed on smaller arthropods, and small tetrapods.[3] Most complete specimens were 13 to 280 mm in length. A large, fragmentary specimen was estimated to be 700 mm (0.7 metres) long when complete. The only portions preserved were the outer portions of the cuticle, which were estimated to only be 15-18 μm thick in the largest specimen.[2]

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References
  1. Andrew J. Jeram (1998). "Phylogeny, classification and evolution of Silurian and Devonian scorpions". In Paul A. Selden (ed.). Proceedings of the 17th European Colloquium of Arachnology, Edinburgh 1997 (PDF). British Arachnological Society. pp. 17–31. ISBN 0-9500093-2-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25.
  2. Jeram, Andrew J. (1993). "Scorpions from the Viséan of East Kirkton, West Lothian, Scotland, with a revision of the infraorder Mesoscorpionina". Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 84 (3–4): 283–299. doi:10.1017/S0263593300006106. ISSN 1755-6910.
  3. Jennifer A. Clack (2002). "East Kirkton and the roots of the modern family tree". Gaining Ground: the Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods. Life of the past. Indiana University Press. pp. 212–233. ISBN 978-0-253-34054-2.
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