SMITH STALKS SIX-FOOT SCORPION!
April 20, 2010 12:00 AM
The photograph shows Iain Smith MSP applying latex to the trackway, closely supervised by Richard Batchelor of GeoHeritage Fife and Dr Dave Williams and Dr Dee Edwards of GeoEd Ltd.
Iain Smith MSP came face to face with the track of a giant water scorpion; fortunately the animal itself has been dead for the past 330 million years!
The trackway of the creature, which must have been 1.6 metres long and 1 metre wide, is preserved on a slab of sandstone in North East Fife, and shows the prints of the feet and tail. Following a request from Scottish Natural Heritage, Richard Batchelor, chair of GeoHeritage Fife, arranged for the trackway to be moulded for a casting by a specialist firm GeoEd Ltd of Cornwall. He explained that the tracks were identified by Sheffield University academic Martin Whyte, a St Andrews geology graduate, as Hibbertopterus, a scorpion-like arthropod living during Carboniferous times (ca. 330 Ma). The important aspect of this find was that, to be preserved, the tracks must have been made above water level, therefore this animal could survive out of water.
Mr Smith said, 'This significant find puts North East Fife even more firmly on the geo-heritage map, following in the wake of the fossil fishes at Dura Den. It is very welcome that the trackway is being recorded, so that it will be available for study, even after the rock is washed away by the sea. Perhaps too it will kindle an interest in geology amongst more young people in the area and encourage geotourism, as there may be other exciting finds just waiting to be discovered.'
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