The real question is...
Could it decapitate a cow?
Huge sea scorpion overshadowed humans
The giant fossilised claw of a 2.5m-long (8ft) cannibalistic sea scorpion has been discovered by a European researcher. The creature, known as Jaekelopterus rhenaniae and nicknamed Jake, is thought to have scuttled around planet Earth some 390 million years ago. According to the Beeb, which cites the journal Biology Letters, …
-
Wednesday 21st November 2007 12:06 GMT Bill Fresher
@Geoff Johnson
I reckon that in the distant past there was a high prevelance of a condition similar to Proteus syndrome. Lots of little beasts wandered around with overgrown limbs and heads. Scientists find one of these fossilized appendages and then speculate about huge dinosaurs and massive insects.
-
Wednesday 21st November 2007 13:10 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
Complete Eurypterid fossils confirm the size
It has been known for quite a while that sea scorpions larger than 2 m existed, in particular Pterygotus, of which a complete fossil of 1.25 m is known. Given this complete fossil, it is hardly rocket science to work out the size if you find just a part.
Isolated body parts indicated lengths of 1.5-1.8 m as fairly ordinary, and above 2 m for large specimens.
See also
http://www.palaeos.com/Invertebrates/Arthropods/Eurypterida/Pterygotina.html
-
Wednesday 21st November 2007 14:07 GMT Doug
New Database Guardian?
Perhaps we could get that bloke from Jurassic Park to clone the beast so it can be used to guard government databases.
Perhaps a SQL Trigger?
If command$ = SQL.EXPORT then {
release(The_big_beastie_with_the_big_claws);
Do while screaming = TRUE { give_command("kill!Kill!Kill!") } ;
}
I know, I know....its just MY version of pseudo code... :)
-
-
Wednesday 21st November 2007 14:36 GMT Anthony
Cannibalistic
Says who?
It's a giant fossil, surely what it probably ate is a matter of speculation?
btw lol Doug, maybe if they had used one of these as a courier instead of the internal mail then "two compact discs containing names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit numbers, National Insurance numbers and bank or building society account details of some 25 million individuals and 7.25 million families" WOULD NOT "have gone missing" (source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7093757,00.html)
-
Wednesday 21st November 2007 15:19 GMT Joe
Markus Poschmann?
Joke name. Surely?
Giant cockroaches, flies, spiders? How they would mock us today. How come they got so small since then, then? Must've been a gigantic shrinking machine what done it, most likely made by aliens. The Church of Scientology must've deliberately left that chapter out.
-
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
