''Erieopterus'' is a genus of prehistoric

eurypterid Eurypterids, often informally called sea scorpions, are a group of extinct arthropods that form the Order (biology), order Eurypterida. The earliest known eurypterids date to the Darriwilian stage of the Ordovician period 467.3 Myr, million yea ...

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 Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. 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 Paleozo ...

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, whe ...

, recovered from both

and

.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