Crossword clues for eurypterid
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fossil swimming crustacean of the Silurian and Devonian, 1874, from Greek eurys "broad, wide" (see eury-) + pteron "feather, wing" (see pterodactyl); so called from their swimming appendages.
Wiktionary
n. A large, prehistoric, carnivorous arthropod, of the class Eurypterida, thought to be one of the first animals to venture onto land.
WordNet
n. large extinct scorpion-like arthropod considered related to horseshoe crabs
Wikipedia
Eurypterids (sea scorpions) are an extinct group of arthropods that are related to arachnids and include the largest known arthropods to have ever lived. They are members of the extinct order Eurypterida ( Chelicerata); which is the most diverse Paleozoic chelicerate order in terms of species. The name Eurypterida comes from the Greek words (meaning "broad" or "wide") and (meaning "wing"). This name was chosen due to the pair of wide swimming appendages on the first fossil eurypterids discovered. The largest, such as Jaekelopterus, reached in length, but most species were less than . They were formidable predators that thrived in warm shallow water, in both seas and lakes, from the mid Ordovician to late Permian .
Although informally called "sea scorpions", only the earliest ones were marine (later ones lived in brackish or freshwater), and they were not true scorpions. According to theory, the move from the sea to fresh water had probably occurred by the Pennsylvanian subperiod. Eurypterids are believed to have undergone ecdysis, making their significance in ecosystems difficult to assess, because it can be difficult to tell a fossil moult from a true fossil carcass. They became extinct during the Permian–Triassic extinction event . Their fossils have a near global distribution.
About two dozen families of eurypterids are known. Perhaps the best-known genus of eurypterid is Eurypterus, of which around 16 fossil species are known. The genus Eurypterus was described in 1825 by James Ellsworth De Kay, a zoologist. He recognized the arthropod nature of the first-ever described eurypterid specimen, found by Dr. S. L. Mitchill. In 1984, that species, Eurypterus remipes was named the state fossil of New York.
Pentecopterus decorahensis, which lived as early as 467.3 million years ago, is the oldest described eurypterid; with an estimated length of , it has been described as "the first real big predator".
Usage examples of "eurypterid".
And why I have begun this column with what seems like a chain of free association is something that will probably become only marginally clear to you when I tell you that it was triggered by the news, last year, of the discovery at the Natural History Museum in London of the oldest known insect fossil, embedded in a chunk of a crystalline rock from Rhynie, Scotland known as chert -- a fossil that dates from the very same Silurian period, four hundred million years back, that saw the flourishing of the eurypterids that T.
She wanted our fossil examined by experts on anomalocarids and eurypterids, the many-legged animals she thought might be related to it.
Well, there were the eurypterids, but I've never agreed with those people who think the eurypterids were—"
Well, there were the eurypterids, but I've never agreed with those people who think the eurypterids were"