Devonian Giant Scorpion Rewrites Early Arthropod Size Story
New imaging of 19th‑century fossils confirms Praearcturus gigas was about 1 meter long, making it the largest known scorpion and pushing the appearance of giant arthropods back by tens of millions of years. Lived around 415 million years ago in what is now Britain, before forests, suggesting size may have stemmed from ecological opportunity and limited competition rather than just high oxygen. Some fossils hint the animal spent time in water, highlighting a life at the land–sea boundary during early terrestrial ecosystems.