Merostomata

views updated

Merostomata (phylum Arthropoda) Class which includes the king crabs (horse-shoe crabs) and the extinct eurypterids or ‘water scorpions’. Eurypterids were usually 10–20 cm in length, but some were much larger, e.g. Pterygotus which grew up to 2 m long. They ranged from the Ordovician to the end of the Palaeozoic. The horseshoe crabs also appeared in the Lower Palaeozoic and have survived to the present.

More From encyclopedia.com