| “ | Meet Brontoscorpio. He's a meter long monster scorpion with gills and a stinger the size of a light bulb! | ” |
– Kenneth Branagh | ||
Brontoscorpio (meaning "Thunder Scorpion") was a large prehistoric scorpion that lived during the late Silurian period.
Facts[]
Brontoscorpio had a stinger approximately the size of a light bulb. Brontoscorpio also had 2 pairs of pincers, with the larger pair used for grasping prey and the smaller used for tearing it apart. Brontoscorpio hunted small marine animals like trilobites and jawless fish like Cephalaspis. Brontoscorpio had evolved strong jaws for crushing and tearing apart the tough armored body of its prey.
Brontoscorpio was one of the apex predators of the Silurian period: not only it could breath underwater with gills, it could also come onto dry land and absorb air it with its primitive book lungs. They came on land to escape predators and molt its shell. At 3 feet long, it would take hours for a Brontoscorpio to molt its shell.
Brontoscorpio, despite its lethality, had its own predators, like Pterygotus , an ambush predator. This was shown in Walking with Monsters where it had hunted smaller sea animals like Cephalaspis and Brontoscorpio itself.
In the series[]
Walking with Monsters[]
Water Dwellers[]
Brontoscorpio appeared in the first episode. One was seen chasing a Cephalaspis. It chased another Cephalaspis but was killed by a mother Pterygotus which fed it to her young. When a large shoal of Cephalaspis swam to its spawning ground further inland, a group of lucky Brontoscorpio came onto land to kill them. Several Cephalaspis were stung and killed.
A Brontoscorpio changing its skin
One Brontoscorpio couldn't feed because it had to shed its skin instead - a process that took it all day. When next morning it finished moulting, the Cephalaspis were gone. The Brontoscorpio had missed its chance.
Behind the Scenes[]
In the Russian version of Walking with Monsters, Brontoscorpio is incorrectly identified as "crayfish-scorpion", which is an alternative term for eurypterids in Russian. It is strange since in the same dub, Pterygotus is openly called an eurypterid.
Appearances In Other Media[]
Primeval: New World[]
Read more at the Anomaly Research Center
Brontoscorpio also appeared in the penultimate and final episodes of Primeval: New World. One came through an Anomaly and killed a volleyball player. It later stung Toby Nance. Evan Cross and Dylan Weir had to travel through the Anomaly to retrieve a venom sample to create an anti-venom for Toby. Evan sliced the stinger off and Dylan returned to the present whilst Evan remained trapped. The scientists at Project Magnet later made an anti-venom.
Gallery[]
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