Discover the oldest scorpion fossil

Archaeologists have discovered a 350-million-year-old scorpion fossil in South Africa, considered the oldest animal fossil ever lived on the ancient continent of Gondwana.

The fossilized remains of scorpion 350 million years old in South Africa.(Photo: University of Witwatersrand)

This finding was published in the African Invertebrate magazine. This ancient scorpion species is scientifically named Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis . It provides clues about the development of life when the ancient continent of Gondwana began to separate and create the earth's surface as it is today. According to the archaeological group, the fossil is the earliest evidence of animals on the Gondwana continent, a large continent including Africa, the Americas, the Arctic, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian peninsula and the continent. Australia.

Robert Gess, an evolutionary researcher at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), discovered the fossil of the scorpion. This fossil specimen has a larger body in the rock near Grahamstown, eastern Cape Province, South Africa. He said that skeletal predators such as scorpions, spiders or some primitive insects were present very early in the Silur period about 416 million years ago.

However, there is no concrete evidence to confirm that invertebrates exist in the ancient continent of Gondwana at the time.

Robert Gess added that the ancient continent of Gondwana in the late Devon century (about 400 million years ago) had a complex terrestrial ecosystem consisting of many animal and plant species, including vertebrates. first on earth.