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Pterygotus is an extinct genus of giant predatory eurypterid, a group of extinct aquatic arthropods.Fossils of Pterygotus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from Middle Silurian to Late Devonian, and have been referred to several different species.
Pterygotidae (the name deriving from the type genus Pterygotus, meaning "winged one") is a family of eurypterids, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods.They were members of the superfamily Pterygotioidea.
The first pterygotioid fossils to be uncovered were those of the type genus, Pterygotus. Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American biologist and geologist, described the fossils in 1839 and named the genus Pterygotus, meaning "winged one". Agassiz mistakenly believed that the fossils were the remains of a large fish. [9]
A majority of fossils are from fossil sites in North America and Europe because the group lived primarily in the waters around and within the ancient supercontinent of Euramerica. Only a handful of eurypterid groups spread beyond the confines of Euramerica and a few genera, such as Adelophthalmus and Pterygotus , achieved a cosmopolitan ...
Restoration of H. socialis. Hughmilleria is the most basal (primitive) known member of the Pterygotioidea. [1] It was a small-sized eurypterid, with the largest specimen measuring 20 cm (8 in), being surpassed by other members of its superfamily, such as Slimonia acuminata, which measured 100 cm (39 in) in length, and Pterygotus grandidentatus, which could reach 1.75 meters (5 ft 8 in). [2]
Based on the size of the tibia, experts estimate the dinosaur was 13 to 15 years old when it died and likely weighed around 3,500 pounds — about two-thirds of the size of a fully-grown adult T rex.
The type specimen of A. cummingsi (a coxa, left) and the type specimen of "Pterygotus buffaloensis" (an appendage including the coxa and part of a chelae, right).. The earliest species of Acutiramus to be named was A. macropthalmus (as a species of Pterygotus, Pterygotus macrophthalmus) in 1859.
The painting includes Dolichopterus, Eusarcana, Stylonurus, Eurypterus and Pterygotus. Hughmilleria can be seen in the bottom of the right corner. The fossils of the hughmilleriids have been found in Silurian deposits ranging from the Llandovery to Ludlow epochs in the United States, China and England. [11]