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Megarachne
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Megarachne

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Megarachne is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Megarachne have been discovered in deposits of Late Carboniferous age, from the Gzhelian stage, in the Bajo de Véliz Formation of San Luis, Argentina. The fossils of the single and type species M. servinei have been recovered from deposits that had once been a freshwater environment. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas), meaning "great", and ἀράχνη (aráchnē), meaning "spider", and thus, "great spider"; because the fossil was misidentified as a large, prehistoric spider.

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Mycteroptidae
Image
Megarachne servinei.jpg
Show 7 more facts
taxon common name
メガラクネ
Commons category
Megarachne
taxon name
Megarachne
taxon rank
genus
start time
303700000-
end time
298900000-
time period
Pennsylvanian
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Description
  • History of research
  • Classification
  • Paleoecology
  • In popular culture
  • References
  • External links

Megarachne is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Megarachne have been discovered in deposits of Late Carboniferous age, from the Gzhelian stage, in the Bajo de Véliz Formation of San Luis, Argentina. The fossils of the single and type species M. servinei have been recovered from deposits that had once been a freshwater environment. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek μέγας (mégas), meaning "great", and ἀράχνη (aráchnē), meaning "spider", and thus, "great spider"; because the fossil was misidentified as a large, prehistoric spider.

With a body length of , Megarachne was a medium-sized eurypterid. If the original identification as a spider had been correct, Megarachne would have been the largest known spider to have ever lived. Eurypterids such as Megarachne are often called "sea scorpions", but the strata in which Megarachne has been found indicates that it dwelled in freshwater and not in marine environments.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Megarachne” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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