Talk:Slimonia

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This is the text as it originally appeared:


 * Slimonia is a genus of Silurian eurypterid closely related to the infamous Pterygotus. Slimonia closely resembled Pterygotus, save that the former's telson is larger, and that its body was smaller and more slender than the latter. The main difference between the two genera, though, was that Slimonia was exclusively freshwater, whereas Pterygotus lived in estuaries. Slimonia preyed on smaller freshwater fish, such as heterostracans and early osteostracans, by seizing and rending them with its pair of large chelicerae (pincers). The largest species of Slimonia was extremely long, around two meters, carrying its body on spindly legs and probably hunting through sudden rushes from hiding. The lungs of the species were located on the underside of the body in a series of folds. It would have been tough to crack through the armor of the early osteostracans and heterostracans, so Slimonia probably devised some primitive hunting tactics.[1]

I've tidied the article and removed the last sentence. It's speculative, vague and reads like something out of a children's book. It could at least be more direct in what it's trying to say; all it really accomplished was to state in a very roundabout way that we don't know something that doesn't really seem that important in the first place. 97.104.210.67 (talk) 22:57, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Some issues
I'm going to add an anatomical description from the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. It will raise some issues, however, as it is at odds with both the illustration and the preceding description, which appears to be drawn from a popular book by Richard Fortey. While Fortey is a specialist in paleozoic arthropods, I am still going to post the TIP description, because it is quite specific.

It is possible that the genus Slimonia has been formally reappraised, resituated, or redescribed since TIP volume P was published in 1955. If that is the case, anyone is free to amend or replace the TIP description.

I am also going to change the statement that Slimonia is "closely" related to Pterygotus. Both are eurypterids, and both are large, but it appears to end there. They are in different families. The discussion of similarities between them is a mess as well, but I'll leave it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Digthepast (talk • contribs) 16:21, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

In fact, it looks like Novojilov 1968 redefined the Hughmilleriidae as Slimonidae. If anyone has access to an updated description accompanying that, please post it.--Digthepast (talk) 16:42, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Currently none of the images in this article show Slimonia's very short chelicerae.
Until I happened to look closely at the ventral/dorsal restoration image in this article and saw the tag that had been added to it, I didn't realize that the chelicerae mentioned in the "Description" section as "small in comparison to those of the pterygotids" aren't actually shown in any of the images in this article. I had naively assumed that they were the small front appendages visible in this article's restoration images. (I was a bit puzzled that these had no pincers, but I was naive and ignorant enough to assume that this animal simply had pincerless chelicerae.) As it turns out, those appendages aren't chelicerae at all; they're the pedipalps. Slimonia's chelicerae were very short, short enough to be completely hidden by the head in a dorsal view. They had not yet been found in fossil specimens when the ventral/dorsal restoration used here was published back in 1878. They were first described in Malcolm Laurie's 1893 paper "The Anatomy and Relations of the Eurypteridæ" and should be visible in restorations published after that date. Some sort of view of them should be included to make the description of Slimonia clearer to readers.

--Colin Douglas Howell (talk) 07:46, 9 October 2021 (UTC)