Pulmonoscorpius

Pulmonoscorpius is an extinct genus of scorpion from the Mississippian subperiod, discovered in Scotland. It contains a single named species, Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis. It was one of the largest scorpions to have ever lived, with the largest known individual having an estimated length exceeding 70 cm. Pulmonoscorpius retains several general arthropod features which are absent in modern scorpions, such as large lateral eyes and a lack of adaptations for a burrowing lifestyle. It was likely an active diurnal predator, and the presence of book lungs indicates that it was fully terrestrial.

Pulmonoscorpius

Junnn11 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 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
CentromachidaePBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At most 5.6 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 335.9 Mya and 330.3 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Carboniferous — about 4 of 4 occurrencesCarboniferous336–336 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences336–336 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences336–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences335–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences335–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences335–335 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences335–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–334 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences334–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–333 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences333–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–332 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences332–331 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences331–331 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences331–331 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences331–331 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences331–330 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences330–330 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences336.4 Mya329.8 Mya

4 occurrences of Pulmonoscorpius 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

4 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

1 formation

East Kirkton Limestone — 55.95°N, 3.20°W

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The named rock units Pulmonoscorpius has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Pulmonoscorpius and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Pulmonoscorpius and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

4 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Pulmonoscorpius, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

1 reference

Each of the 4 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Pulmonoscorpius

Credit
Junnn11
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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 itCentromachidae through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Jeram 1994