Eoscorpius

Eoscorpius is an extinct genus of scorpions. Several species have been formally described and named, while several other proposed species lack formal scientific names. The genus existed from the Early Carboniferous to the Asselian age of the Early Permian, its distribution spanning modern-day Asia, North America, and Europe. Its defining features include the subquadrate shape of its carapace, the placement of its median eyes on raised nodes, and two large ridges that differentiate the parts of its carapace. It has been noted for its extensive similarities to modern scorpions. Its habitat is believed to have included the extensive swampy, coal-producing forests that existed during the Carboniferous. Within these forests, there is evidence that it may have lived in the canopy and understory levels.

Eoscorpius

Alexander Petrunkevitch · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EoscorpiidaePBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At least 307 million years on record.

The record covers at least 330.3 Mya to 23.04 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 335.9 Mya to 5.333 Mya.

Carboniferous — about 19 of 22 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 2 of 22 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 22 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 0 of 22 occurrencesLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 22 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesEocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesOligocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesMiocene — about 1 of 22 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences343–331 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences331–320 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences320–308 Mya — about 14 occurrences308–297 Mya — about 4 occurrences297–285 Mya — about 1 occurrence34–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–11 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences11–0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences330.3 Mya23.04 Mya343 Mya0 Mya

22 occurrences of Eoscorpius on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

22 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

9 formations

Carbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.22°N, 88.22°WSchistes de Buxières — 46.50°N, 3.05°EParkgate Coal — 53.54°N, 1.52°WParrsboro — 45.38°N, 64.39°WBerthelsdorf — 51.12°N, 12.50°EMonterey — 34.08°N, 118.17°WTaiyuan — 39.53°N, 106.64°EPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.53°N, 2.51°WFlöz Zweibänke — 52.32°N, 8.01°E

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The named rock units Eoscorpius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eoscorpius and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Eoscorpius and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

229 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 20 sites for Eoscorpius, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

12 references

Each of the 22 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Eoscorpius

Credit
Alexander Petrunkevitch
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Eoscorpius was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEoscorpiidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Meek and Worthen 1868