(Web Desk) - The world's largest known scorpion lived at a time when other land animals were relatively small, around 415 million years ago in what is now the U.K., a new study finds.
The prehistoric creature, named Praearcturus gigas, is estimated to have grown to lengths of around 3.3 feet (1 meter) and was equipped with formidable pincers measuring roughly 6.2 inches (16 centimeters) long, according to a statement from the University of Manchester.
The scorpion would likely have been a fearsome apex predator that stalked floodplains during the Early Devonian Period, when life on land was still in its relatively early stages and dominated by small arthropods. Arthropods are now the most diverse animal group on Earth, as they include insects, crustaceans, scorpions and spiders.
The discovery that such a large scorpion was living 415 million years ago — long before the appearance of complex terrestrial ecosystems, such as forests — offers new insights into the evolutionary history of gigantism in arthropods.
"Confirming that this animal is a scorpion fundamentally changes our understanding of how and when these creatures evolved to such extraordinary sizes," study first author Richard Howard, curator of fossil arthropods at the Natural History Museum, London, said in the statement.