Experts agree that the oldest traces of life on Earth date back 3.8 billion years. Fossilized remains discovered in sedimentary rocks prove that life was then exclusively aquatic, and remained so for nearly 3.4 billion years. However, many creatures walked the Earth's soil in the millions of years that followed. Among them, the largest arachnid in history.
Arthropods, present on Earth for 540 million years
According to researchers, the first arthropods with pincers from the suborder Chelicerates appeared around 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian period, the oldest of the Paleozoic eras. It was only later, during the Late Silurian period (440 million years ago), that the first known specimens of scorpions and spiders appeared. These creatures looked very similar to those we know today, but with different sizes.
Creatures that you would think came straight out of depths of present-day Australia, even if, fortunately some would say, animal species have shrunk with evolution. Today, approximately 80,000 species of arachnids have been recorded, including more than 1,500 species of scorpions and 50,000 species of spiders. These species are found almost everywhere on Earth, from tropical regions to polar regions. Among these 80,000 species of arachnids, one dominates by its size: Heterometrus swammerdami.
Brontoscorpio anglicus or the largest arachnid that ever existed
This species of giant forest scorpion, found during the Second World War in the village of Krishnarajapuram, India, measured 29.2 cm in total length, from the tip of its pincers to the tip of its stinger. A species native to southern India, males often reach a length of over 18 cm. But this scorpion is nothing compared to the largest known arachnid species. And surprisingly, the largest arachnid isn't a spider, but, again, a scorpion. Sweetly named Brontoscorpio anglicus, this species of giant prehistoric scorpion existed in what is now Worcestershire, in central England, United Kingdom.
To find it, you had to walk on Earth during the Late Silurian period, about 425 million years ago. Although it is currently represented by only a single, incomplete free digit of a right pedipalp, paleontologists have estimated that the complete creature would have measured at least 90 cm in total length. A fossil discovered in the Silurian Trimpley Sandstone, Worcestershire, for a species that was formally described and named in 1972.
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