5-Foot-Long Sea Scorpion Discovered Beneath Iowa River
The first large predatory animal is----massive. And discovered, now.
It's prehistoric, a sea scorpion in Iowa, a collection of 150 fossils deep under the Upper Iowa River. Scientists at Yale felt it was a new species from over 460 million years ago, after the waters swallowed Iowa.
It was a new species that was as big as a human, almost six feet in length, with a long head, slim and narrow body, and large claw-like limbs that would hunt and fight.
Scientists have called it the Pentecopterus decorahensis after a Greek warship. It's part of the eurypterid family, an ancient group that our modern species' family of spiders, lobsters and ticks share, according to CNN.
"Perhaps most surprising is the fantastic way it is preserved -- the exoskeleton is compressed on the rock but can be peeled off and studied under a microscope," James Lamsdell, the lead author of the study at Yale University, said, according to hngn.
"This shows an amazing amount of detail, such as the patterns of small hairs on the legs. At times it seems like you are studying the shed skin of a modern animal - an incredibly exciting opportunity for any paleontologist," he said, according to ABC News.
