scorpius and Palaeophonus become also in aspect integral elements of the eurypterid waterlime fauna.
7 As Eusarcus and the Siluric scorpions are so much alike in their body form, they may be assumed to have had similar habits, and it follows that these scorpions were probably also given to burying themselves in the mud, waiting there for their prey as undoubtedly many of the eurypterids, and especially Eusarcus, did. In this connection the fact becomes extremely significant that Palaeophonus nuncius was blind, according to Thorell and Lindström's observations, and that, for this reason, Lindström [1855, p. 8] infers some difference in habits from those of the recent scorpions,[1] and believes that it may have possessed a burrowing mode of existence.
It would be singular indeed if, of all the Siluric terrestrial fauna, the scorpions alone should have been repeatedly carried out to sea in a good state of preservation; much more plausible is the assumption of their coexistence in the sea with the similarly constructed and closely related eurypterids, with which their remains are found associated.
The genus Hastimima White
David White has described [1909, p. 589] under the name Hastimima whitei certain fragmentary remains from the Carbonic plant beds of Santa Catherina, Brazil, as doubtful plants, but under protest, as it were, after various paleontologists had failed to recognize them as belonging to any other group. Seward [1909, p. 484] has referred a similar fragment from the Witteberg series of South Africa to Hastimima, suggesting that it represents part of a body segment of an eurypterid. This suggestion was fully verified by Henry Woodward after inspection of the specimen. This pioneer and leader among the investigators of eurypterids, has also subjected White's photographs of the Brazilian types to critical notice
- ↑ Thorell [op. cit. p. 22] cites for comparison the single known recent scorpion which is destitute of eyes, namely, Belisarius xambeui.
