posted November 21, 2007 06:02 PM              

You have to read this article. This is amazing.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/11/20/biggest.bug.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

quote:

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The study, published online Tuesday in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, means that before this sea scorpion became extinct it was much longer than today's average man is tall.

Prof. Jeorg W. Schneider, a paleontologist at Freiberg Mining Academy in southeastern Germany, said the study provides valuable new information about "the last of the giant scorpions."

Schneider, who was not involved in the study, said these scorpions "were dominant for millions of years because they didn't have natural enemies. Eventually they were wiped out by large fish with jaws and teeth

Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be.

"The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates -- backboned animals like ourselves."

That competition ended long ago.

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It's like something from those old movies that I used to watch, and be so scared of when I was a kid.

Funny that it is discovered when the sun is in scorpio, and I think, mercury....