''Gigantoscorpio willsi'' is an extinct species of

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

which lived between 345.0million and 342.8million years ago, during the Visean age of the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

. Its type and only specimen is BMNH In. 42706a,b, In. 42707, which is a 3D body fossil of its

exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that ...

found near modern-day

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Three other specimens (GSE 2134, GSE 2137 and GSE 2174) were previously referred to this genus, but subsequent analyses disagreed with this referral and reclassified them as indeterminate scorpions. Based on the incomplete holotype, ''Gigantoscorpio'' is initially estimated at or long, but subsequently estimated at long.

References

Carboniferous arthropods of Europe Carboniferous arachnids Prehistoric scorpion genera Fossil taxa described in 1963 Monotypic prehistoric arachnid genera {{paleo-scorpion-stub