Aquatic Scorpion

[Acro]

There are many aquatic and semiaquatic insects and some arachnids.
There are aquatic beetles, spiders and a semiaquatic roach, to name a few.
Are there any scorpions that are considered aquatic or semiaquatic?

[Michiel]

No, they are terrestrial arthropds...

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[catfishrod69]

There are invertibrates called "water scorpions", but they are not real scorpions. Here-->http://bugguide.net/node/view/31114

[Acro]

I have kept a few Giant Waterscorpions (Nepa sp.), they are amazing animals!

As for my question, I was just thinking of all the adaptions that inverts have developed. So many have taken to water, yet I have never heard of a true scorpion being aquatic or semi aquatic.

Thought there may be one out there that I had not heard of. One that somebody had info on. Are we sure that none have been discovered?

[Michiel]

I am sure...none have been discovered....is not a ver big chance...their ancestors where aquatic, then they came to land, with adapted breathing apparatus, book lungs, and why would evolution make two different lineages, one with book lungs, one with normal lungs or gills....Same reason there are no underwater giraffes or flying rhino's...adaptation is not always the case....there is no need for scorpions to become aquatic and thas been the case since they started living on land...

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[Greenjewls]

I am sure...none have been discovered....is not a ver big chance...their ancestors where aquatic, then they came to land, with adapted breathing apparatus, book lungs, and why would evolution make two different lineages, one with book lungs, one with normal lungs or gills....Same reason there are no underwater giraffes or flying rhino's...adaptation is not always the case....there is no need for scorpions to become aquatic and thas been the case since they started living on land...

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There are whales and dolphins, ie underwater rhinos. they evolved into land animals long ago and then returned to the sea. maybe lobsters are underwater scorpions?

[Michiel]

No...crustacea are close related but no arachnids....whales and dolphins are aquatic mammals are not sea rhino's, what are you smoking?

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[2nscorpx]

I'm not getting all "what if" here, or pointing to a single resource, but in Rubio's book, he mentions littoral scorpions that live in the inter-tidal zone. What are those...?

[AzJohn]

I'm not getting all "what if" here, or pointing to a single resource, but in Rubio's book, he mentions littoral scorpions that live in the inter-tidal zone. What are those...?

Euscorpius carpathicus is probably the species. I've seen it mentioned that they can be found in tidal caves. I've seen it mentioned in a few places, none of which I would take too seriously.

[AbraxasComplex]

The biology of Vaejovis littoralis Williams, an intertidal scorpion from Baja California, Mexico

[Michiel]

I don't think that scorpions living in these intertidal zones would considered as semi-aquatic....but it woukd be interesting to know what binds them to these zones...Why don't they go landinwards...Maybe because the humidity?
I know that the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus also lives in zones that are flooded every now and then, and these.guys can breath through plastron respiration and can stay submerged for hours, because they can breath like this...
Question seems, what makes an animal semi-aquatic and how does this pertain to scorpions living in intertidal zones....Learn me something for a change Who is going to dig into this?

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[Acro]

When Greenjewls mentioned "whales and dolphins", what was meant (I think) is that whales and dolphins evolved from land based animals who then evolved into "aquatic mammals".

As for animals leaving one way of life and returning to it, just look at the snakes. They evolved from animals that had limbs and lived on the land, then they moved underground and lost the limbs. When conditions became favorable, they came back to land as they are today. Look it up, true stuff, it took a while and a lot of evolution but it happened. Sea snakes took it a step further.

Looking at the big picture, all land animals evolved from water based animals. Now we have fishing spiders and diving spiders, one arachnid that has returned to water. They still breath air, but they depend on the water to live.

As for the intertidal scorpions mentioned (and thanks for mentioning them everyone!) the ammount of time they spend in the water and the adaptions that have developed would determin if they were infact aquatic or semi-aquatic animals. I wonder if they just hang on the ceiling of tidal caves, then pick through any food that remains when the tide goes out. Maybe they scamper up the beach every time a wave crashes in. Maybe they dive under and snag a dead fish. Anybody have more info?

[Wadew]

[QUOTE=Michiel;2045143]I am sure...none have been discovered....is not a ver big chance...their ancestors where aquatic, then they came to land, with adapted breathing apparatus, book lungs, and why would evolution make two different lineages, one with book lungs, one with normal lungs or gills....Same reason there are no underwater giraffes or flying rhino's...adaptation is not always the case....there is no need for scorpions to become aquatic and thas been the case since they started living on land...
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Michiel,
You are aware of beta splendens or betta fish that have a labyrinth organ and gills like a fish. Both allow the fish to breath air.
-Wade

[Michiel]

Yes, I have heard of those. There are several fish that have "alternative ways of breathing besides gills" btw, like eels, lung fish, chinese snakeheads etc.. But remember, we're talking scorpions here....

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[Eclectix]

To my knowledge, there are no true aquatic scorpions alive today, but your common crayfish or lobster is really not terribly different once you get right down to it.




The creature illustrated above doesn't actually exist, but is a "what if" illustration which I created. This sort of written or illustrated fiction is referred to as "speculative evolution."

My description to go with the image: The trench scorpion is distantly related to terrestrial scorpions. While most of the eurypterid sea scorpions of the Ordovician either went extinct or evolved to live on land, one species has remained in the inky blackness of the Mariana Trench where it has eluded scientific discovery until recently. This sea scorpion uses a bioluminous lure which grows on one of a pair of sensory "antennae". When the trench scorpion senses movement near the lure, it strikes with its venomous stinger and grabs its prey with formidable pincers. The creature has the peculiar habit of walking backwards on the trench floor, and since it has long ago lost its eyes in the black abyss, it looks very much as though its "tail" is actually its "head."