Scientists Discover That A Man-Sized Scorpion Was Once The World's Most Dominant Predator And It Lived In A Sea-Covered Iowa
CSMonitor- Despite recent reports of shark attacks, new fossils reveal the oceans are still much safer than they were 460 million years ago. Before Tyrannosaurus rex, the Earth’s dominant predator was a sea scorpion, according to scientists. It would have reached a length of 5 feet 7 inches and had a spiked tail and claws sprouting from its head. Despite the horror movie type description, real fossils of the creature were discovered in Iowa by a team of geologists from the Iowa Geological Survey. Some 150 pieces of fossils were found below the Upper Iowa River. The fossils were sent to Yale University, where researchers verified the discovery and determined the species lived 460 million years ago. The researchers published their findings Monday in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. The ancient sea scorpion was discovered in a meteorite impact crater left by the Ordovician meteor event over 470 million years ago, according to LiveScience. At the time the Pentecopterus decorahensis, the water creature’s new official name, roamed, an ocean covered Iowa. The creature would have swum in the ocean, using its tail not to sting, but for balance and direction. The size of the creature was significant, rivaling the size of a grown man.
Well isn’t that just great. Here I think I’m landlocked and safe from all of the horrors that live in the ocean only to find out I’ve been living in the place that was once home to the most dominant creature in the whole world. Sure it was 460 million years ago and Iowa is no longer covered by water and that scorpion is long gone but that doesn’t make me any less afraid to dip my little toes in an Iowa lake or river. I at least thought the bodies of water around here were safe to enter. Nothing more than a few tadpoles swimming around. I’m no stranger to getting on a pontoon boat, letting my feet dangle and wasting the day away but it looks like that is no longer an option either. Pools from here on out is the only water I’ll enter. Because even if I do get into a body of water around here now, and my foot touches a plant or something, I’ll think it’s that damn scorpion gnawing on my leg. Doesn’t matter that it hasn’t been around for half a trillion years. It’s a mental block now.
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Seriously though, read this description of the scorpion again
Before Tyrannosaurus rex, the Earth’s dominant predator was a sea scorpion, according to scientists. It would have reached a length of 5 feet 7 inches and had a spiked tail and claws sprouting from its head.
Spiked tail and claws sprouting from its head. Enough said.