''Erieopterus'' is a genus of prehistoric
eurypterid
Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct arthropods that form the order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period 467.3 million years ago. The group is ...
found in Silurian to Devonian-aged marine strata of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
and
North America. The genus contains eight species from the
Silurian
The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoi ...
to the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, w ...
, recovered from both
North America and
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
.
[Dunlop, J. A., Penney, D. & Jekel, D. 2015. A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives. In World Spider Catalog. Natural History Museum Bern, online at http://wsc.nmbe.ch, version 16.0 http://www.wsc.nmbe.ch/resources/fossils/Fossils16.0.pdf (PDF).]
Species
*''Erieopterus eriensis''
(Whitfield, 1882) — Silurian, USA
*''Erieopterus hypsophthalmus''
Kjellesvig-Waering, 1958 — Silurian, USA
*?''Erieopterus laticeps''
(Schmidt, 1883) — Silurian, Norway
*?''Erieopterus limuloides''
(Kjellesvig-Waering, 1948) — Silurian, USA
*''Erieopterus microphthalmus''
(Hall, 1859) — Devonian, USA & Canada
*?''Erieopterus phillipsensis''
Copeland, 1971 — Silurian. Canada
*?''Erieopterus turgidus''
Stumm & Kjellesvig-Waering, 1962 — Silurian, USA
References
Eurypteroidea
Silurian eurypterids
Silurian arthropods of North America
Devonian arthropods of North America
Devonian eurypterids
Silurian first appearances
Devonian extinctions
Paleozoic life of Nunavut
Eurypterids of Europe
Eurypterids of North America
Bertie Formation
{{eurypterid-stub