Preliminary notice on a Silurian Scorpion (Palaeophonus nuncius) from the Isle of Gothland

Abstract

In his paper on the ‶Fossil Scorpions of Scotland,″1 Mr B. N. Peach has said: ‶The dawn of the scorpion family must have been at a much earlier period,2 and we may hope that their remains may yet turn up in the Devonian and Silurian plant-beds.″ This hope has now been fulfilled, since I have discovered a scorpion in the Upper Silurian beds of the Swedish Island, Gothland. It was found near the town of Wisby, not far from its southern walls, in a thin bed of shale or clay, which was previously known to be rich in remains of Pterygoti, Annelida, Brachiopoda, Trilobites, &c. The scorpion, a photograph of which, twice the natural size, is subjoined, will be described in detail by Professor Tamerlau Thorell, the eminent author of several works on recent Scorpions, in a joint paper with me. For the present, I give a few preliminary remarks on it, for as their own strata contain so many important species of fossil scorpions, it may be of special interest to Scottish naturalists. The Gothland fossil consists entirely of the thin chitinous coating of the animal, which had apparently been entombed in the stratum after all soft animal tissues had been dissolved. It has consequently suffered much through the pressure of the superimposed limestone strata, and has been much folded and wrinkled. The colour is brownish yellow and chestnut, and agrees thus with that of recent scorpions. The main parts of the body agree also with theirs. We find