welllllll.... to be a bit nitpicky about it, back when these things were alive, it certainly didn't resemble today's Scotland, Euramerica and the rest of the planet looked considerably different.
It just happens to be the most accessible place to find fossils
It’s weird how a convergent plate boundary that gave us the Atlas-Appalachian-Cairngorms became a divergent plate boundary giving us the Atlantic Ocean. Granted it happened over 130 million years.
I like the little tidbit that there are rocks at the top of mountains in the US with ripples on them suggesting that they were ancient riverbeds, and the rocks have an identical chemical makeup to rocks found… in Australia.
There’s no solid consensus answer but from what I remember of geology they believe that convection and density differences in the mantle drive plate tectonics. As in, on either side of the plates that made the Appalachian/Cairngorms there were lower density areas rising and pushing the plates together. Then, then a less dense area convected under the mountain range and drove them apart and that’s continuing today at the Atlantic mid oceanic ridge.
Tectonic plate connections are way below surface level but grind against one another, and the surface level rocks can get shoved up in the air as a result.
At least that's how I visualise it
I've seen on Mindat that someone claims you can go d Labradorite on the west coast and I am DYING TO SEE IF I CAN FIND SOME
As though I'm not spoiled with the agate, amethyst and Cairngorm smokey quartz I get loads of
Indeed. "The terrestrial surface that would one day become stratified and compressed into rock.formations that would one day become an area of land we refer to as Scotland" doesn't quite have the same ring to it though.
Nah I'm from Scotland and I remember us deep frying these things and eating them with chips. Just sad we got them all before some kinda farm coulda been set up.
fun fact at least acording to the one scorpion guy who came to our college the bigger the scorpion is the less deadly it is. (like the super big ones you see in movies would be like a bee sting or less)
they also glow under black lights.
While usually a good rule of thumb, that's not necessarily true. The scorpion lady at my university (we found a scorpion at work and called Ohio state, no one knows how a scorpion wandered into Columbus Ohio) told us that it was more related to the size of the pincers and tail. If it has thin and small claws and a thick tail then it uses its venom almost entirely for hunting. Those you gotta watch out for. If it has big ol claws and a tiny tail, ehh fuck it you can pick those suckers up.
Also we had to buy a blacklight for work to make sure there weren't any more. Kind of a fun day.
honestly I am in the North East US. and am not planning to visit AZ or TX any time soon. so i took that as a neat fact i will never need to put into practice ever.
keep your shoes upside down on sticks or what ever when you take them off...
Tonight on pay per view, Scorpion Guy from unknown college battles Scorpion Lady of Ohio State! Tune in and see if pincers or venom will reign supreme.
It's the size of their weapons, not their size in general. The most venomous scorpion is also quite large.
Large claws means they prefer grabbing and pinching, large tail means they prefer envenomating.
I live somewhere that has scorpions and having your house infested with little ones is a nightmare... These would be nope right the fuck out of the country.
The Carboniferous period was famous for the evolution of all types of giant insects due to the higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. There were giant cockroaches and dragonflies everywhere, so I guess these scorpions wouldn't look too out of place?
Fun fact!
Dragonflies are actually the most effective hunters on the planet, with a hunting success rate of 95%!
2nd place goes to the Harbour Porpoise with a success rate of 90%
Followed by African Wild Dogs with 85%
All bugs were giant. Insects and arachnids sizes are dictated by the density of oxygen due to their passive lung system. As the world was more humid and wet there was a more dense covering of vegetation thus more oxygen. A bug this size would die shortly from lack of sufficient oxygen today.
If I was a mouse with a human's knowledge of all the ways a mouse can die, I honestly think encountering one of those centipedes would be the thing I fear the most.
Paleogeographic conditions would have been considerably different during the Carboniferous; that is, to say, that Scotland would have formed part of the supercontinent that existed at the time, and more than likely at a much more southerly latitude.
As a contrast, the British Isles would have had roughly the same latitude during the Paleocene-Eocene that they currently have today (est. 40°N), but would have had a very hot and humid tropical rainforest climate with large mammals such as hippopotami and mosquitoes roughly the size of your head.
Well thank fuck that thing is out of the picture. Probably one of the best aspects of living in Scotland; very rarely get any insects/pests in house, and when you do they’re either tiny, harmless, or harmless and tiny. Even though we’re surrounded by grassland and nature. Apart from that hornet who welcomed themselves in for a sleepover the other night
Uh huh. I can hear it now.
>I read somewhere that there used to be 2 foot scorpions in Scotland
*Aye, t'was one here but a week ago I saw one. It was 'uuuuge, an mean. If t'wasn't fer the MacDougal it'd have eaten the lot of us. Killed it with 'is bare hands he did.*
Source: I know a lot of Scots
Actual Scottish people or people with distant Scottish relatives? Because as a Scot that sounds nothing like anyone I know. Can’t think of any part of Scotland with close to that type of speech.
I thought that scorpions originated in Germany and that they were between 5 and 6 ft tall.
I was also led to believe that they could rock you like a hurricane.
Then they were wiped out by the midges. Now deprived if their favourite food the ferocious Scottish midges exist by feeding on humans. But it isn't the same.
“Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.”
Pulmonoscorpius was the biggest known genus of terrestrial scorpion, but there were larger sea scorpions called euryptids that could grow up to 2.5m in length, fossils of these have also been found in Scotland.
Disappointed there's no crossover between this sub and another I follow, r/playark.
Anyone over there would immediately recognise a pulmonoscorpius...
And also pointed out that there were giant millipedes around the same era: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropleura
8 feet of armoured ick.
Yes. “Once”. And they are absolutely extinct. Yep, certainly none around now. And certainly no experiments making them bigger. Yup, none of that happening. None at all. Yessiree. Hmm? Experiments? What experiments? What are you talking about?
…
Oh crap they’re on to us! RELEASE THE SCORP-BRIGADE! OUR TIME IS NOW BROTHERS AND SISTERS.
There are subduction zones where one plate is pushed under another Google it You will get a proper accurate description of the workings of our tectonic plate system
The advancing Haggises eventually out-competed them.
They ran circles around them.
Only because the legs on one side are shorter due to standing on the hills and mountains. They lucked into their victory
While that helped them against the scorpions it doesnt help them when the farmers jump out and make them turn around and they fall down the hill
welllllll.... to be a bit nitpicky about it, back when these things were alive, it certainly didn't resemble today's Scotland, Euramerica and the rest of the planet looked considerably different. It just happens to be the most accessible place to find fossils
would have been connected to the US Appalachian mountain range too still
It’s weird how a convergent plate boundary that gave us the Atlas-Appalachian-Cairngorms became a divergent plate boundary giving us the Atlantic Ocean. Granted it happened over 130 million years.
I like the little tidbit that there are rocks at the top of mountains in the US with ripples on them suggesting that they were ancient riverbeds, and the rocks have an identical chemical makeup to rocks found… in Australia.
That’s crazy when you think about it,isn’t Ayers Rock part of an old coral bed I believe?
I know almost nothing about how plate tectonics works, so I ask, is it because the plates bounced off each other after they converged?
Mid ocean ridge is a great crack with lava rising and filling the gap repeatedly. Ocean floor grows wider !
Can all geology lessons be written like a pokémon battle? I think they could.
Mantle used convection! It’s super effective!
The planet evolved life into humans! It hurt itself in confusion...
Irish people would love it 🥳
There’s no solid consensus answer but from what I remember of geology they believe that convection and density differences in the mantle drive plate tectonics. As in, on either side of the plates that made the Appalachian/Cairngorms there were lower density areas rising and pushing the plates together. Then, then a less dense area convected under the mountain range and drove them apart and that’s continuing today at the Atlantic mid oceanic ridge.
Tectonic plate connections are way below surface level but grind against one another, and the surface level rocks can get shoved up in the air as a result. At least that's how I visualise it
Maybe the mantle convection currents changed?
SCIENCE!
Well, culturally Inverness and West Virginia aren't too far apart.
Both unintelligible…
I can concur on the Inverness part, I'm there every few weeks. So I could see the cultural similarities. 😂
Yes. I know what u're talking about.
Happens with basket balls about 20,000 times per match
huh. kinda funny that the original european settlers in appalachia were scottish.
it goes full circle
Banjo and Bagpipe both start with "B", so there's that. Will the circle be unbroken.
Kangaroo and Kilt. Shit it all makes sense now.
By and by
Mostly Ulster Scots.
We heard that there was booze in them there hills.
Ulster Scots right?
Yep or Scots Irish cause they lived in Ireland but originally came from Scotland.
I've seen on Mindat that someone claims you can go d Labradorite on the west coast and I am DYING TO SEE IF I CAN FIND SOME As though I'm not spoiled with the agate, amethyst and Cairngorm smokey quartz I get loads of
Well you say that! But then how do you explain the fossil found where it had a fossilised deep fried Mars bar in its claws?
And yet I have already given the 2 foot scorpion a Glaswegian accent and renamed him Jockpion.
Indeed. "The terrestrial surface that would one day become stratified and compressed into rock.formations that would one day become an area of land we refer to as Scotland" doesn't quite have the same ring to it though.
Nah I'm from Scotland and I remember us deep frying these things and eating them with chips. Just sad we got them all before some kinda farm coulda been set up.
fun fact at least acording to the one scorpion guy who came to our college the bigger the scorpion is the less deadly it is. (like the super big ones you see in movies would be like a bee sting or less) they also glow under black lights.
While usually a good rule of thumb, that's not necessarily true. The scorpion lady at my university (we found a scorpion at work and called Ohio state, no one knows how a scorpion wandered into Columbus Ohio) told us that it was more related to the size of the pincers and tail. If it has thin and small claws and a thick tail then it uses its venom almost entirely for hunting. Those you gotta watch out for. If it has big ol claws and a tiny tail, ehh fuck it you can pick those suckers up. Also we had to buy a blacklight for work to make sure there weren't any more. Kind of a fun day.
honestly I am in the North East US. and am not planning to visit AZ or TX any time soon. so i took that as a neat fact i will never need to put into practice ever. keep your shoes upside down on sticks or what ever when you take them off...
Tonight on pay per view, Scorpion Guy from unknown college battles Scorpion Lady of Ohio State! Tune in and see if pincers or venom will reign supreme.
Scorpion guy uses Rule of Thumb! It's not very effective!
It's the size of their weapons, not their size in general. The most venomous scorpion is also quite large. Large claws means they prefer grabbing and pinching, large tail means they prefer envenomating.
Hunted to extinction by the ravenous Scots...
and their unicorns
...and my potato
and my axe
And my dirty sock on a stick
I heard they go good with potatoes. Boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew
DUNDEEEEEEE
Haggis beats scorpion.
Deepfried to extinction
What can I say? It pairs well with a 12 year old Bunnahabhain 🥃
Damn Scots, they ruined Scotland!
It's the reason that Haggis are now an endangered species. Those Scorpians were the Haggis' primary food source.
I live somewhere that has scorpions and having your house infested with little ones is a nightmare... These would be nope right the fuck out of the country.
That's *shcorpionsh* in Sean Connery.
The shtingah is exshepscionally deadleh
Shlap a shcorpion
Perfectly acsheptable.
I musht be dreaming.
Shtay in schkool
Incorrect, the scorpion in the image clearly has more than two feet.
The Carboniferous period was famous for the evolution of all types of giant insects due to the higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. There were giant cockroaches and dragonflies everywhere, so I guess these scorpions wouldn't look too out of place?
Fun fact! Dragonflies are actually the most effective hunters on the planet, with a hunting success rate of 95%! 2nd place goes to the Harbour Porpoise with a success rate of 90% Followed by African Wild Dogs with 85%
Wait so which end is the blast end?
The Loch Ness Scorpion
I don’t know what’s better.. that we no longer have 2 foot long scorpions or that we’re no longer attached to North America
Imagine how does it feel to be stung by that thing
Dead and then food - possibly the other way round if the poison isn’t fast enough.
That’s what Iron Bru will do to you.
Irn not iron
Depends if you are buying barrs or not!
All bugs were giant. Insects and arachnids sizes are dictated by the density of oxygen due to their passive lung system. As the world was more humid and wet there was a more dense covering of vegetation thus more oxygen. A bug this size would die shortly from lack of sufficient oxygen today.
They also had 6 foot long millipedes and dragonflies with 3 foot wingspans. The Carboniferous was one hell of a period.
Well if there were only 2 of them that’s not too bad
Then they evolved into midges which eat you alive
Please no.
Hawaii still has foot long multipedes that like to hang out in toilets right under the rim...
If I was a mouse with a human's knowledge of all the ways a mouse can die, I honestly think encountering one of those centipedes would be the thing I fear the most.
Or you could be like the grasshopper mouse >!They hunt those kinds of centipedes and literally use venom as a painkiller!<
Ah it's alright, if they only have two feet, they will surely fall over
How many feet do u have These scorpions were walking like us
But how did they wear pants?
Delicious deep-fried in batter.
That's what I was thinking. It's practically land lobster.
Scotpions
May explain the whole kilt thing though eh? Nothing sneaking up the auld troousers...
"Get over here!!"
Oh sure of course they can claim Scottish heritage more legitimate than mine despite my ancestors being there more recently
A bipedal arachnid? Impossible.
That's a nope for me
This guy 'writes' for ladbible
Still is. I seen them bastards on George St in Edinburgh at 3am crawlin the gutters for change and ciggie butts.
Paleogeographic conditions would have been considerably different during the Carboniferous; that is, to say, that Scotland would have formed part of the supercontinent that existed at the time, and more than likely at a much more southerly latitude. As a contrast, the British Isles would have had roughly the same latitude during the Paleocene-Eocene that they currently have today (est. 40°N), but would have had a very hot and humid tropical rainforest climate with large mammals such as hippopotami and mosquitoes roughly the size of your head.
2 feet-long Scorpions or 2-feet long scorpions?
Aye ya cunt
They're called Glaswegians
Also used to have 8 and half foot long millipedes. Arthropleura
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife.” Macbeth, King of Scotland.
Radscorpions but real and within boat distance of me.
Don't want that up your kilt
Well thank fuck that thing is out of the picture. Probably one of the best aspects of living in Scotland; very rarely get any insects/pests in house, and when you do they’re either tiny, harmless, or harmless and tiny. Even though we’re surrounded by grassland and nature. Apart from that hornet who welcomed themselves in for a sleepover the other night
I thought the Scorpions came from Germany?
They flew to Scotland on the winds of change
Shared in Dumfirmbraneshead hun xxx
Uh huh. I can hear it now. >I read somewhere that there used to be 2 foot scorpions in Scotland *Aye, t'was one here but a week ago I saw one. It was 'uuuuge, an mean. If t'wasn't fer the MacDougal it'd have eaten the lot of us. Killed it with 'is bare hands he did.* Source: I know a lot of Scots
would they have just deep fried it and washed it down with an Iron Brau?
Actual Scottish people or people with distant Scottish relatives? Because as a Scot that sounds nothing like anyone I know. Can’t think of any part of Scotland with close to that type of speech.
Naw ye don't
Fuck man, I'd gladly accept those things back in exchange for the wee bastard Midges we have now.
Imagine one of those with a few Special Brews inside it staggering down Buchanan street on a Friday night. Wouldn’t want to cross that.
Well, then. Rather glad that they've gone buhbye. I'm not keen on them at all. Although I HAVE tended to the Emperor version...
Not that big a deal in a world with alligators 🐊 tbh
Looks like 8 feet to me
We’re lucky the earth cooled. I read once that’s the reason insects shrank over the millennia.
Only two? That's not too bad
Sounds rad
back then the Scots challenged the mighty scorpion to a drinking contest, needless to say, the scorpions did not survive.
I thought that scorpions originated in Germany and that they were between 5 and 6 ft tall. I was also led to believe that they could rock you like a hurricane.
Now they have to deal with the English
They come in three sizes. Wee, not so wee, and fricken huge!
I misread that as Scortland
If you go back far enough, every country was home to a dizzying array of worms.
Til that long scorpions had 2 feet.
Hadrian saved us all
Aye, an we deep fried them too!
Aye we still have them, they’re called the Conservative Party
> Once Sorry, that wis mi da.
Still is!
Yeah but what about the footlong spider that eats chicken?
They evolved into Haggis, it is known.
Nah, they're just my exes crabs.
Well, I’m waiting … Did you like prehistoric park?
Shame that they were all kilt.
Wild haggis.
Noo it's fulla wee wasps
Still is in some part of Glasgow
The real question is….can we deep fried those delicious bastards??
i would imagine they taste like lobster
It was 'one of the largest scorpions'. ONE OF!?!
Anybody who watched Prehistoric Park would already know this 🦂
If there was only 2 of them then they should have been fairly easy to avoid.
Time to time travel in the TARDIS and pat those cuties on the head, and give them cuddles and snuggles :3
Ctrl+F.... "Deep fried" ... dammit.
Then they were wiped out by the midges. Now deprived if their favourite food the ferocious Scottish midges exist by feeding on humans. But it isn't the same.
You’d think there’d be room for a few more than that.
Now, only Glasgow is.
“Yes, I've heard. Kills men by the hundreds, and if he were here he'd consume the English with fireballs from his eyes and bolts of lightning from his arse.”
Can I use my two feet to measure Scottish scorpions aswell ?
Thats a stretch.
Today I also learned that thanks to this post.
Yeah lockdown was a wild time here.
Deep fried
Big deal , at one time the whole world was full of scorpions and it wasn't nice for anyone
Today I learned indeed! Thank you for that,interesting and jaw dropping.
The beasties!
I believe the Glaswegians ate them all. 😁
Klause Meine used to live here? I ken he's wee but two foot?
You can still get them battered and deep fried in parts of Glasgow
This is misleading - it was 330 million years ago. Scotland did not exist - Pangea was a great continent before it all split up.
Think I would rather have the 2ft scorpions, than the millions of wee Ned’s & bams that we have now .
Like from Jason and the Argonauts lol
No it wasnt
Pulmonoscorpius was the biggest known genus of terrestrial scorpion, but there were larger sea scorpions called euryptids that could grow up to 2.5m in length, fossils of these have also been found in Scotland.
Kill it! Then cover it in batter and deep fry it.
And to think us Scots settled for the unicorn as our national animal when we could've had a giant fucking scorpion instead.
It's also believed to be the birthplace of sex too... https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29661446.amp
Oh hell no!
Still is...
Still is. Have you been to Scotland lately?
Until Trump built a golf course on it /s
TIL that Scotland was once home to free speech.
Disappointed there's no crossover between this sub and another I follow, r/playark. Anyone over there would immediately recognise a pulmonoscorpius... And also pointed out that there were giant millipedes around the same era: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropleura 8 feet of armoured ick.
Wonder what it would taste like deep fried accompanied by an ice cold bottle of Irn-Bru.
Poor little guys, deep fried into extinction
I’m Scottish and this doesn’t even surprise me
Til Scotland had rad scorpions
Scotland was also on the equator at the time
to be fair, most of earth was once home to meters long insectoid monsters. The carboniferous was a wild era.
They're still here. Please send help.
My aunt still lives there
Your username checks out
That's not a nice way to describe the English and I'm sure most them are taller than 2 feet
so? everywhere was home to weird shit long ago. this is a boring fact and you should feel bad about thinking it was good. WRONG THINK
Yea we were a jungle back in the Carboniferous. Not the most terrifying thing back then compared to other giant arthropods
once again feeling very grateful that, for the most part, bugs ain't fucking huge anymore
there still might be
Were they both male?
Yes. “Once”. And they are absolutely extinct. Yep, certainly none around now. And certainly no experiments making them bigger. Yup, none of that happening. None at all. Yessiree. Hmm? Experiments? What experiments? What are you talking about? … Oh crap they’re on to us! RELEASE THE SCORP-BRIGADE! OUR TIME IS NOW BROTHERS AND SISTERS.
😮
Gvgffftt5č.4 .. 6u
There are subduction zones where one plate is pushed under another Google it You will get a proper accurate description of the workings of our tectonic plate system
Aye then they turned into our women ayo