# Prehistoric Giant Invertebrates **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-giant-invertebrates/306449 "2005-06-01T21:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-giant-invertebrates/306449/1 "2005-06-01T21:13:47Z")
Have paleontologists found any cephalopod fossils comparable in size to a giant squid? How about giant spiders and/or scorpions? Also, millipedes and centipedes? I do remember a giant dragonfly with a thirty-inch wingspread (from my childhood readings, not personal experience!). Have they found any bigger flying insects than that one? ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-giant-invertebrates/306449/2 "2005-06-01T23:13:19Z")
The eurypterids were large relatives of scorpions that could get up to two metres long. Nothing impressive, but I thought I’d throw it out there. ---
**Author:** ![adirondack\_mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-giant-invertebrates/306449/3 "2005-06-02T01:54:40Z")
> [@Speaker for the Dead](#): > > The eurypterids were large relatives of scorpions that could get up to two metres long. Nothing impressive, but I thought I’d throw it out there. Not impressive! A six foot long giant prehistoric scorpian with sharp pointy claws. The predator extrodanaire of the Iapetus ocean? [Picture](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/chelicerata/eurypterida.html) What would impress you? The largest ammonite I could find is about 6.5 feet in diameter. That is coiled up - if you got 'em out of the shell you’d need a whole lot of batter and a lot of oil. They look like a Nautilus but don’t be fooled internally they are very different. They are also extinct. I can’t imagine things getting bigger then that - as far as invertebrates are concerned that made it to fossilization. ---
**Author:** ![whatsittoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@whatsittoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whatsittoya)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prehistoric-giant-invertebrates/306449/4 "2005-06-02T05:31:58Z")
How about [this](http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_science/article/0,2668,ALBQ_21236_3699656,00.html)? I remember it from another thread on this board but I can’t seem to find it now.