Question 1

How do you say Brontoscorpio?

Accepted Answer

You say it like this: BRON-toe-SKOR-pee-oh. Break it into five parts and put the stress on the first syllable BRON and the third syllable SKOR. A good trick is to say 'Bronto' like in Brontosaurus, then just add 'SKOR-pee-oh' right after. Once you get it, it rolls off the tongue pretty easily.

Question 2

What does Brontoscorpio mean?

Accepted Answer

Brontoscorpio means 'thunder scorpion'. The first part, 'bronto', comes from the Greek word for thunder, the same root used in Brontosaurus. The second part, 'scorpio', is both Latin and Greek for scorpion. Scientists chose 'thunder' to communicate just how massive and impressive this ancient creature was compared to modern scorpions.

Question 3

How big was Brontoscorpio?

Accepted Answer

Estimates suggest Brontoscorpio was large enough to be genuinely intimidating, potentially reaching lengths that would put it among the biggest scorpions ever to have lived. It lived during the Devonian period between roughly 413 and 359 million years ago, at a time when giant arthropods were far more common than they are today. Exact size estimates are difficult because scorpion fossils from this period are often fragmentary.

Question 4

Was Brontoscorpio dangerous?

Accepted Answer

Almost certainly yes. Like all scorpions, Brontoscorpio almost certainly had a venomous stinger at the tip of its tail as well as large grasping pincers called chelae. In the shallow Devonian seas where it lived, it would have been a top predator capable of catching early fish, other arthropods, and soft-bodied invertebrates. At its size, very few creatures in its ecosystem would have wanted to cross paths with it.

Question 5

Where was Brontoscorpio found?

Accepted Answer

Brontoscorpio fossils were found in the United Kingdom, in rocks dating to the Devonian period. At the time this animal was alive, roughly 400 million years ago, Britain was positioned much closer to the equator and was covered in warm shallow seas, a very different environment from the rainy island it is today. The fossils are rare and fragmentary, which is part of why scientists debated for so long about what kind of animal it actually was.

Question 6

Is Brontoscorpio the same as Praearcturus?

Accepted Answer

Scientists now think Brontoscorpio may be a junior synonym of Praearcturus gigas, which means both names could refer to the exact same animal described separately at different times. When two researchers independently discover and name what turns out to be the same species, the older name officially wins according to the rules of scientific naming. This debate was finally pushed forward using CT scanning of the original fossils, which revealed enough detail to support classifying both under the scorpion interpretation.

Question 7

Why did scientists argue so long about what Brontoscorpio was?

Accepted Answer

Devonian arthropod fossils are notoriously tricky to identify because many ancient creatures had body plans that do not match anything alive today. At various points the fossils now associated with this group were thought to be a giant isopod, a myriapod like a centipede or millipede, and a eurypterid sea scorpion. The scorpion interpretation was only seriously proposed in 1980, and it took modern CT scanning technology to thoroughly support it. This kind of long scientific back-and-forth is actually normal for unusual ancient animals.

Question 8

How old is Brontoscorpio?

Accepted Answer

According to the Paleobiology Database, Brontoscorpio lived from approximately 413 million years ago to around 359 million years ago, during the Devonian period. To put that in perspective, this was more than 150 million years before the first dinosaurs appeared. Brontoscorpio was already ancient history by the time T. rex walked the Earth. It existed during one of the most important eras in evolution, when animals were just beginning to colonize land.

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