Scorpion. I was of course a Sonya Blade fan though, and was always her when we played. My brother was sub-zero so he would just play like an asshole and freeze me non-stop knowing that I couldn’t do anything to defend myself because I wasn’t all that good at the game. Eventually I did learn forward-forward-left would shoot a pink thing - later stolen by that bitch Kira.

Before I start this installment of my prehistoric animals I would like to share with you all an e-mail question that I received in regards to the science posts. “If you want to be considered a read science blog why do you link to blogs hosted on Seed’s science blogs? They don’t even accommodate for ID, you want to be associated with such bias?” To answer…Yes.

name: megalograptus meaning “giant writing” in greek
pronounced: meg-al-oh-grap-tuss
animal type: Chelicerate eurypterid arthropod
size: 1 m long
diet: carnivore
lived: 460 - 446 mya
fossil:

…A sea scorpion related to the horseshoe crab. They were hardy and could survive in pretty much every climate that was thrown at them - including fresh water and land environments. It was actually a lot like modern day scorpions. It would moult its shell when it had to grow revealing a new softer shell which would take several hours to harden. This would obviously make them more vulnerable so they would come together in groups to moult their shells. Group moulting! (strongly discouraged by RAs.)

When it wasn’t moulting…it could defend its self really well with a thick protective shell and arms that were covered in spiky deals. It would swim along the sea floor, using its tail and legs to propel itself, grabbing at other little fish and trilobites. The only thing it would really have to fear was its own kind and the cameraceras. These two were pretty much the bullies of the waters until jawed fish came swimming on in.

But while their shells were soft they took this opportunity to get their groove on. The females could store the males’ sperm for months while they waited for idea environmental conditions for pregnancy.

The megolograptus was one of the first animals to start dragging itself onto land, fossils of the drag marks have been found in numerous locations, but why they made this little trip to land is completely unknown considering the lack of life and activity that was happening on land. Maybe we’d be mermaids if it hadn’t of gone up there.

Fossils for sea scorpions have been found world wide with the average size being 10-70 meters, but other such as the pterygotus would grow to be 2 meters long. All of the sea scorpions are chelicerates - an ancient arthropod group dating back to 500 million years ago. …It might seem logical that the megalograptus and other sea scorpions would have led to the evolution of the modern day scorpion - but it’s actually pretty controversial.

Im getting pretty anxious to get to the dinosaurs. But hey! we’re on land now! (although i have more fish coming…)