Scorpiones

Scorpions are predatory arachnids with eight legs, a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always ending with a stinger. The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back to the Silurian Period, approximately 430 million years ago. They mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. There are over 2,500 described species, with 22 extant (living) families recognized to date. Their taxonomy is being revised to account for 21st-century genomic studies.

Scorpiones

Shantanu Kuveskar · 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
Also called
scorpionPBDB
Sits inside
StomothecataPBDB
Life habit
solitaryPBDB, for Arachnida
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arachnida
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Arachnida

Time the record covers

At least 432 million years on record.

The record covers at least 432.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 438.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Ordovician — about 0 of 292 occurrencesSilurian — about 17 of 292 occurrencesDevonian — about 20 of 292 occurrencesDevonianCarboniferous — about 131 of 292 occurrencesCarboniferousPermian — about 7 of 292 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesMiddle Triassic — about 21 of 292 occurrencesLate Triassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 292 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 0 of 292 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 14 of 292 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 50 of 292 occurrencesPaleocene — about 0 of 292 occurrencesEocene — about 13 of 292 occurrencesOligocene — about 1 of 292 occurrencesMiocene — about 12 of 292 occurrencesPliocene — about 0 of 292 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 292 occurrences447–432 Mya — about 2 occurrences432–418 Mya — about 17 occurrences418–403 Mya — about 11 occurrences403–388 Mya — about 1 occurrence388–373 Mya — about 3 occurrences373–358 Mya — about 2 occurrences358–343 Mya — about 9 occurrences343–328 Mya — about 20 occurrences328–313 Mya — about 58 occurrences313–298 Mya — about 45 occurrences298–283 Mya — about 3 occurrences283–268 Mya — about 1 occurrence268–254 Mya — about 2 occurrences254–239 Mya — about 22 occurrences194–179 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–119 Mya — about 2 occurrences119–104 Mya — about 11 occurrences104–89 Mya — about 51 occurrences60–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–30 Mya — about 12 occurrences30–15 Mya — about 10 occurrences15–0 Mya — about 8 occurrences432.9 Mya11.7 ka447 Mya0 Mya

292 occurrences of Scorpiones on record, most of them in the Carboniferous. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

292 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

61 formations

Carbondale — 41.34°N, 88.39°WCarbondale — 41.22°N, 88.21°WCarbondale — 41.32°N, 88.25°WCarbondale — 40.52°N, 89.89°WCrato — 7.13°S, 39.70°WFiddlers Green — 42.85°N, 78.80°WFiddlers Green — 42.96°N, 75.06°WFiddlers Green — 42.96°N, 75.41°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.33°N, 2.08°WBromsgrove Sandstone — 52.49°N, 1.84°WKladno — 50.10°N, 13.72°EKladno — 49.71°N, 13.21°EKladno — 49.86°N, 13.63°EKladno — 50.24°N, 14.30°EEast Kirkton Limestone — 55.95°N, 3.20°WGrès à Voltzia — 48.83°N, 7.24°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.91°N, 7.20°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.73°N, 7.17°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.69°N, 7.38°EGrès à Voltzia — 48.78°N, 7.25°EGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.20°N, 3.07°WGlencartholm Volcanic Beds — 55.11°N, 2.98°WGlencartholm Volcanic — 55.00°N, 2.00°WBeartooth Butte — 44.87°N, 108.07°WCementstone-Sandstone Series — 55.10°N, 2.96°WCementstone-Sandstone Series — 55.98°N, 3.38°WLawrence Shale — 38.84°N, 95.39°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.53°N, 2.67°WPennine Lower Coal Measures — 53.53°N, 2.51°WPennine Middle Coal Measures — 53.75°N, 1.40°WPennine Middle Coal Measures — 53.81°N, 1.13°WNellenköpfchen — 50.24°N, 7.45°ENellenköpfchen — 50.30°N, 7.56°EMazantic Shale — 17.15°N, 92.70°WMiddle Coal Measures — 52.99°N, 1.31°WDrumgray Coal — 55.91°N, 3.88°WJoggins — 45.70°N, 64.45°WSt Maughan's — 51.94°N, 2.91°WSt Maughan's — 51.96°N, 2.99°WEscuminac — 48.11°N, 66.37°WWest Lothian Oil Shale — 55.92°N, 3.25°WEramosa — 44.75°N, 81.18°WOld Red Sandstone — 51.86°N, 2.73°WOld Red Sandstone — 51.50°N, 2.78°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Scorpiones has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 37 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 128 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scorpiones and its relatives

Carboniferous

Where Scorpiones and its relatives were recorded in the Carboniferous.

Found in the same rock

4,763 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 194 sites for Scorpiones, 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

135 references

Each of the 292 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. 123 further references are not listed. 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 Scorpiones

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

No 3D scan of Scorpiones was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itStomothecata through timeFormations of the CarboniferousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1817