Strange Sea Scorpion

Puzzling sea creature caught in pond. I first discovered this strange scorpion looking monster a few weeks ago when it was brought to my attention through FB.

Sea Scorpion Explained

According to the reports that I could find, in 1971 a farmer by the name of Ted Litton living in Lilac, Texas caught this beast in his artificial pond.

8 hours after this image appeared in a local paper, Litton’s farm was completely taken over by Army soldiers in decontamination suits who drained the pond leaving a giant cavity at the bottom.

They claimed the creature was just a “freak of nature,” and then promptly confiscated it, promising to give Ted $5,000 in compensation. The report goes on to claim the army of course never followed through on payment.

 

 BBC TV Series Sea Monsters

 

The creature in the photograph appears to be a eurypterid, or what is commonly called a sea-scorpion.

If this is real, how did a creature that lived in the sea end up in a man-made “pond.”

This of course would be an amazing find since they died off during a mass extinction during the Permian-Triassic period over 252 million years ago.

Is it possible that some may have survived?

Very possible.

In fact, prehistoric creatures long thought to be extinct have been rediscovered on a few occasions. Just like the coelacanth which was thought to have died off over 65 million years ago has been rediscovered as recently as 1998 off the coast of Indonesia.

This type of event where an animal or organism disappears from the fossil record only to reappear later is referred to in the field of paleontology as a Lazarus Taxon. The name Lazarus of course referring to the biblical character who was raised from the dead.

But in this incident, that is not the case.

The image is actually a still from a BBC television series called Sea Monsters and the giant eurypterid is just an animatronic model designed by the special effects design company Creepy Crawly to be used in the making of the show.

The prop was designed to represent the a megalograptus.

An Ordovician Euryptid that is as long as a Siberian Husky that may have used its tail in defense much like a modern day scorpion.

While this may be just another internet hoax, it still possible that a creature just like this or even scarier still lurks somewhere in the deep dark abyss of the ocean, just waiting to be rediscovered.

Weird n Wild Creatures Euryptid
Card 5 Monsters of the Past

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: