- Locality: Bertie Formation
- Age: 415 to 422 Million Years
Eurypterids, also known as sea scorpions, are pretty rare in the fossil record. But when we find them, we find lots of them. That’s because they came together in huge numbers to mate and molt. Occasionally, some cataclysmic event like a mudslide caught them all in the act.
These lobster-esque swimmers first evolved in the ocean. But eventually, eurypterids were probably able to live in freshwater, and may have even been able to breathe air on land for short periods of time.
The eurypterid fossil you’re holding is from the Bertie Formation, which sounds like a group of grandmas, but is just a sedimentary deposit from western New York to Ontario. The formation is between 415 and 422 million years old.