Pterygotid eurypterid (source identity unresolved)
Jaekelopterus
The file inside this model package is labelled Jaekelopterus, but the source item is titled Megalograptus, so its identity still needs checking.
Look at the big spiny appendages at the front of its body. Do they look like two pincers for holding prey?
Explore it in the 3D museum →
Meet this animal
- When it lived
- Early Devonian (about 410–393 million years ago, if the Jaekelopterus identification is correct)
- Fossil discovery regions
- Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (Jaekelopterus rhenaniae)
- Size
- 2.3–2.6 metres
- Diet
- Meat-eater
- Classification
- Pterygotid eurypterid (source identity unresolved)
Jaekelopterus rhenaniae was a giant pterygotid eurypterid. A fossil claw about 46 centimetres long from Germany was scaled against related species to suggest a body length of roughly 2.5 metres. That figure is an estimate for a very large individual extrapolated from one body part, not a tape measurement of a complete animal.