Jaekelopterus

Rhenaniae Fossil of Jaekelopterus

• Willwerath ( Germany )

• Jaekelopterus rhenaniae ( Jaekel, 1914)

Jaekelopterus is a genus of Eurypterida (German sea scorpions ), who lived in the Lower Devonian more than 397 million years ago. The prey were mainly fish tank. The type species was described in 1914 Jaekelopterus rhenaniae rhenaniae by Otto Jaekel as Pterygotus (such as " Rhenish -finned "); as Waterston (1964 ) placed the species in its own genus, he named them after the first describer Jaekelopterus.

After a finding of a 46 -cm-long fossil jaw claw ( chelicerae ) of Jaekelopterus rhenaniae by the paleontologist Markus Posch man from the Emsian ( Lower Devonian ) of the fossil deposit Willwerath near Prum, one can assume that these animals were about 2.50 meters tall, and thus the largest known giant scorpions. The jaw claw, issued together with other fossils from the same locality, in the Mainz Museum of Natural History.