Eurypterids What?

Eurypterids
Giant sea scorpions in Fort Erie? True! I saw them a few Saturdays ago. In Fort Erie? Yes, I am not kidding. One thing the late Bert Miller did was to surprise you with some rare flora. We now have Rob Eberly of the Bert Miller Nature Club.
Rob has become an Eurypterid finder. How he does it? I don’t know but I was there when he found them. Uncanny.
We were in a private quarry that sunny, late September, 1999 afternoon. The four of us, Rob, Robbie Jr., Rick, and myself stood on the edge of the road leading down into the heart of the working quarry. There were two figures far down the way. The reverberations of their tapping reached us. Rob lead the way. One of them stood up to greet us. He was a tall thin man. His companion, a young woman, also equipped with a stone hammer arose.
“I am Robert Sensenstein, a paleontologist from Ottawa. This is my wife. We are on our honeymoon. We heard about the eurypterids and wanted to do some searching.”
Rob said that we were doing likewise. We parted our ways and headed some 60-70 feet east. Rick found a spot. I did too. Rob started at his own location. I followed the slabs that were piled in a trail. I would take one turn it over and on occasion hit it with my rock hammer. It would split. Nothing inside. Remember I had protective glasses on. tone chips can hurt you.
I heard Rick calling to Robbie, “Be careful, Robbie.” Robbie was the top of a pile of loose slabs and he disappeared. No problem. Robbie appeared unscathed. He headed back to where his father was systematically prying back a layer of Bertie limestone. Then the gasp. “What’s this?” Rick and I approached. There was Rob and his son looking down at the head of an Eurypterid. Carefully Rob pried back the third level. There staring at was the positive and negative form of a Sea scorpion. Stinger tail, paddles and segmented body a good eight inches in length. We yelled over to Robert and his wife. They exploded with expletives. ...what a .find! ...This is great!
The Sensensteins were in ecstasy. I recorded the paleontologist’s words and his description. “There may be more here as they are often found in a nest.” He was right. Rob found another excellent negative and positive form and a third head.
What is an eurypterid? Here is one description, “ Euypterids, also known as “sea scorpions” were marine arthopods that became extinct. Related to modern-day scorpions, they could grow to six feet long!” Giants? Ours were one-tenth the size but still it was an exciting find. I read that eurpterids rarely occur in the fossil record. So uncanny Rob Eberly, amateur paleontologist of Ridgeway, has done it again. Like Rob and I took photos of the great find. Rob graciously turned his site over to the honeymooners, the Sensensteins of Ottawa. They were grateful.