Fossil Arthropod Chelicerata
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Glasgow Museums has a collection of approximately 550 fossil chelicerates. Chelicerates are a major group of arthropods. They include spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs and the extinct eurypterids, also called water or sea scorpions. Sea scorpions have segmented bodies, with six pairs of appendages, developed into pincer-like claws and limbs for walking and swimming. This collection contains chelicerate fossils that are almost all Silurian eurypterids from famous fossil localities around Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire. This euryperid collection was mainly acquired in the early 20th century, and includes material collected by Dr Robert Slimon and also by members of Camp Siluria (a camp set up by a group of members of the Geological Society of Glasgow). Two species Erettopterus bilobus and Slimonia acuminata account for much of the collection, but there are also examples of other genera such as Hardieopterus, Lanarkopterus, Paracarcinosoma and Stylonurella. There is also one example of the Carboniferous horseshoe crab Belinurus, and one specimen of a rare Carboniferous eurypterid – this important example is the lectotype of Hibbertopterus scouleri, collected from East Kirkton Quarry, Bathgate, in about 1830.
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