Pterygotus

Pterygotus was a giant sea scorpion, a very distant relative of the modern king crab.

Facts

The titan of sea scorpions, Pterygotus grew up more than three meters long, the size of some modern crocodiles. Unlike actual scorpions, Pterygotus did not have a true stinger, its tail bearing little more than a superficial resemblance to its namesake. Instead, Pterygotus used it as a paddle for swimming in the water. More usuall, however, Pterygotus crawled along the sea bottom or was just lying an ambush. Pterygotus was too heavy to swim too far for too long, but it was capable of relatively fast bursts of speed, though.

Depsite its' fame, Pterygotus was only the second largest of the sea scorpions. The Jaekelopterus was larger though not by much. Pterygotus remains are mostly found in the Upper Silurian (418 million years ago) in Europe, but it has been found also in the Lower Devonian strata of North America, as well as other places around the world belonging to the Silurian-Devonian time period.

In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, as well as Walking with Monsters, Pterygotus is depicted as an ambush hunter, lying in wait for the sea-bed for unsuspecting prey to arrive. Although some animals, like Cephalaspis, were able to detect and evade Pterygotu, others like Brontoscorpio were not so lucky. It was also shown to care for its young.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

A mother Pterygotus was hiding under the sea bed, grabbing the tail of an unsuspecting male Nothosaurus. While pulling on the tail, the Nothosaurus managed to escape, but half of the tail was ripped off and the Pterygotus then fed the leftovers to her young.