CRACKING CRABS: Laub’s colleague used this apparatus to measure the force needed to penetrate the shell of a horseshoe crab.RICHARD S. BERKOF
Eurypterids, or sea scorpions, immediately caught paleontologist Richard Laub’s attention when he became a curator at the Buffalo Museum of Science in 1973. Browsing the museum’s fossil collection, he was impressed with the formidable clawlike mouthparts of the largest of this extinct group of arthropods, the pterygotids. Reaching lengths of more than 2 meters, the aquatic animals hold the title as the largest arthropods to ever live, and Laub didn’t have much doubt about the utility of their giant pincers. “I thought they were a combination fishing spear and can opener,” says Laub, now retired. “It seemed obvious.”
But a few years ago, when Laub finally got around to testing his hypothesis, he found out that the claws were simply not strong enough to stab ...
