Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0815
Keywords
scorpion; Silurian; locomotion; behaviour; exuviae; new species
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Funding
- Royal Ontario Museum Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust
- M.A. Fritz endowment
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One of the oldest known fossil scorpions, a new species from the mid-Silurian Eramosa Formation (430 myr) of Ontario, Canada, exhibits several surprising features. The depositional environment and associated biota indicate a marine habitat; however, the leg morphology of this scorpion, which has a short tarsus in common with all Recent scorpions, suggests that a key adaptation for terrestrial locomotion, the ability to support its weight on a subterminal 'foot', appeared remarkably early in the scorpion fossil record. Specimens are preserved intact and undisturbed in a splayed posture typical of moults rather than carcasses. We postulate that these animals were aquatic, but occasionally ventured into extremely shallow water, or onto a transient sub-aerially exposed surface while moulting, before returning to deeper water. Shed exuviae were preserved in situ by rapid overgrowth of bacterial biofilm.
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