Mycteroptidae are a family of , a group of extinct chelicerate commonly known as "sea scorpions". The family is one of three families contained in the superfamily Mycteropoidea (along with Hibbertopteridae and Drepanopterus), which in turn is one of four superfamilies classified as part of the suborder Stylonurina.
Mycteroptids were sweep-feeding eurypterids known from the Late Carboniferous
Description
Mycteroptids were medium-sized to fairly large
Mycteropoidea with parabolic prosoma and a hastate telson with paired ventral keels. They had a culticular ornament of scales or mucrones and unlike the
Hibbertopteridae, appendage IV was non-spiniferous. The first and second opisthosomal tergites were strongly developed and elongated.
The heads of mycteroptids were subtrapezoid in shape with small compound eyes.
[ 1955. Merostomata. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part P Arthropoda 2, Chelicerata, P39.]
Mycteroptids only used appendages II and III to capture prey, whilst hibberopterids used II, III and IV.
Genera and species
Three of the four genera included in the Mycteroptidae,
Mycterops,
Woodwardopterus and
Megarachne might represent different
Ontogeny of each other based on the sizes of the referred specimens and the patterns of mucronation. This would sink the genera
Woodwardopterus and
Megarachne into
Mycterops.
Family Mycteroptidae Cope, 1886
See also
