More great science news thanks to FPJ. A giant eurypterid found in a quarry in Germany indicates one of the larger species every found. There have been specimens found in NY that have been estimated to be upwards of a meter. (I thought E. buffaloensis was upwards of 2 meters). But this guy (or gal) is estimated from claw size to have been upwards of 8 feet long. Very, very cool.
Later: Reading more carefully--as to the contention that it is the largest arthropod ever discovered, there is room for some doubt. Arthropleura, an arthropod similar to centipedes and millipedes has been estimated to be up to three meters in length by some scientists. Of course, so long as one is finding only single tergites or detached claws, there is reason to doubt the estimates. (Some very small arthropods have extremely "oversized" claws. I'm thinking here of species such as the coconut crab of the Andaman Islands. (The species pictured in the article are unfamiliar to me, they all seem to come from the south pacific.) But in these cases the claws are roughly half of the body mass--unusual, but not unheard of, and so it makes estimation from the claw a rather difficult matter.
