Jeremy Shere

Around 390-million years ago, the king predator of coastal swamps was an 8-foot long sea scorpion with 18-inch long spiked claws.

That’s according to scientists in Germany and England who discovered a fossilized claw.

It’s well known that pre-historic insects were much larger than their modern descendents. But the giant scorpion claw gives us a better idea of just how monstrous some of these creatures were.

Here’s what the scientists–Simon Braddy of the University of Bristol in the UK and Markus Poschmann of the Mainz Museum in Germany–think they know about the giant water bug:

–It lived exclusively in water because its legs would have been too puny to support its massive body on land.
–It lived in coastal swamp waters and was top predator there, eating pretty much anything smaller than itself (and also eating its own kind).
–It had giant claws perched on the end of two long, folding arms that could shoot out to ambush prey.
–The giant scorpion grew so large probably due to lack of competition from other sea creatures.

So what happened to these Kong-sized scorpions? Scientists suspect that once fish began to evolve jaws, sea scorpions suddenly weren’t the only fearsome predators around. And so their numbers began to dwindle. Finally, they were killed off buring the Permian extinction around 250 million years ago.

Source: National Geographic News