Hibbertopterus

• Scotland

Hibbertopterus is a genus of extinct arthropods that belongs to the Seeskorpionen ( Eurypterida ). Noteworthy is the finding of a unique, originating from the Lower Carboniferous and about 330 million years old trace fossils in Scotland. This is the oldest and with 6 m length and 1 m width largest resulting ashore at the same time moving track an arthropod that has been found.

After one of Martin Whyte, a geologist from the University of Sheffield, in 2005, accidentally found impression on the Scottish coast in the Midland Valley, it is assumed that the polluter was about 1.60 meters long and one meter wide. This is the largest specimen of Hibbertopterus that has been found so far.

From the nature of the track, it is clear that they must have been out of the water. This proves that the sea scorpions, though could slow and cumbersome, basically move on land. Your masticatory apparatus shows a clear adaptation to a diet in the water and thus to a purely aquatic life. The trace fossil of Hibbertopterus shows, however, that these sea creatures were too short ashore be able. In the Lower Carboniferous lived there already, the first land vertebrates ( Tetrapoda ), the early amphibians.