The oldest scorpion lived in the water 437 million years ago

The little Muhammad Western

A new scientific study - excavations collected 35 years ago - showed that it belongs to the oldest known scorpions that lived about 437 million years ago. The researchers found that this scorpion probably had the ability to breathe and live in ancient and wild oceans at the same time.

This discovery provides new information about how animals move from living at sea to living entirely on land.

The respiratory system and blood circulation of the scorpion - which was found in fossils in the state of Wisconsin and preserved in the University Museum there - are almost identical to modern wild scorpion systems that operate at the same time similar to those in horseshoe crab, and mostly live in water, but are able to live on land Short periods of time.

Scorpion hunter
The researchers named Parioscorpio venator the new scorpion, the genus "ancestor" and the species "hunter". They published the results of the study in "Scientific Reports" magazine on January 16th.

"We are looking at the oldest known scorpion, but the most important thing is that we have identified a mechanism by which animals were able to move from the marine environment to the wild. It provides a model for other types of animals that made this transfer," says Lauren Babcock, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University and co-author of the study. Including vertebrates. It is a new discovery. "

Previously a scorpion had lived in a recent era in Scotland, and it dates back to about 434 million years ago. Paleontologists know that these creatures were among the first animals that were completely transformed to live on land.

The results of the study of the new fossils showed that they are older than those found in Scotland by a period of time ranging between one and three million years, as scientists believe that these scorpions lived between 436.5 and 437.5 million years ago now. During the early part of the Silurian era, which witnessed the emergence of the first forms of wildlife.

Windrav, lead investigator and his team examined the excavations under a microscope, and took detailed high-resolution images of the fossils from different angles. Parts of the animal's internal organs, preserved in rock and identified appendices, showed a room where the animal was storing poison, as well as the remnants of its respiratory and circulatory systems.

Land or sea?
The scorpion is about 2.5 cm in length, the same size as many scorpions in the world today. It shows - as researchers say - the crucial connection between the way in which the ancestors of scorpions breathed underwater and the way modern scorpions breathed on the ground.

The researchers say that how the respiratory system and blood circulation of this animal are similar, in form, to those found in spiders and scorpions that breathe air exclusively, but at the same time incredibly similar to what is known in marine arthropods such as crabs.

Therefore, it appears that this type of scorpion has been pre-adapted to life on land, which means that it acquires the morphological ability to move to the wild environment, even before it takes any step on land.

The issue of the movement of animals - to live from the sea to land and the time period in which they occurred - is the subject of controversy and debate among scientists for their differing views on them.

Previous excavations, for example, have shown traces of sand walking up to 560 million years old, which means that it is difficult to know whether animals lived on land or moved to them after they lived in the oceans.

But with these scorpions whose traces remained in Wisconsin fossils, there was no doubt about their ability to survive on Earth due to the similarities with modern scorpions especially the respiratory and circulatory systems.