This timeline of eurypterid research is a chronologically ordered list of important fossil discoveries, controversies of interpretation, and taxonomic revisions of eurypterids, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods closely related to modern arachnids and horseshoe crabs that lived during the Paleozoic Era.
The scientific study of eurypterids began in the early 19th century when James E. DeKay recognized a fossil that had previously been described as that of a fish as arthropod in nature.
Though DeKay erroneously believed the fossil to represent a crustacean and a missing link between trilobites and branchiopods, the fossil became the type species of first ever eurypterid to be scientifically described, Eurypterus remipes, in 1825.
[1] Over 250 species of eurypterids in 74 recognized valid genera have been described since the discovery of Eurypterus remipes.
[2] The most recent genus to be described is Terropterus (2021) and the most recent species is its type species Terropterus xiushanensis (2021).
Fossil of
Tylopterella boyleyi
.
T. boyleyi
was first described in 1884 and was for many years considered to be a species of
Eurypterus
.
Fossil of
Carcinosoma newlini
.
Carcinosoma
was coined as a replacement name for the preoccupied name
Eurysoma
in 1890, the same year its type species was described.
Reconstruction of
Jaekelopterus rhenaniae
. Initially described as a species of
Pterygotus
in 1914,
Jaekelopterus rhenaniae
is the largest known eurypterid.
Carapace of
Unionopterus anastasiae
.
Unionopterus
was first described in 1948 and its precise taxonomical position remains unclear.
Reconstruction of
Campylocephalus
. Throughout the 1950s, several studies centered on whether or not
Campylocephalus
was synonymous with
Hibbertopterus
.
Reconstruction of
Carcinosoma newlini
with coloration inferred by Kjellesvig-Waering in 1958.
Reconstruction of
Nanahughmilleria norvegica
.
Nanahughmilleria
was one of the many products of major taxonomic revisals by eurypterid researchers in the 1960s.
Reconstruction of
Erettopterus
. Two new species of
Erettopterus
were described in the 1970s.
Reconstruction of
Megarachne servinei
. At the time of its 1980 description,
Megarachne
was believed to have been a gigantic prehistoric
spider
.
Reconstruction of
Herefordopterus banksii
. Regarded as a species of
Hughmilleria
since 1859,
H. banksii
was concluded to represent a genus of its own in 2006.
