Merostomata

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Merostomata (phylum Arthropoda, subphylum Crustacea) Class that includes the horseshoe crabs (king crabs) and the extinct eurypterids. The eurypterids (‘water scorpions’), which grew up to 3 m long, 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.

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