Slimonia

Slimonia
Temporal range: Silurian, 436–420 Ma
Fossil of S. acuminata housed at the Senckenberg Museum of Frankfurt
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Order: Eurypterida
Superfamily: Pterygotioidea
Family: Slimonidae
Genus: Slimonia
Page, 1856
Type species
Slimonia acuminata
Salter, 1856
Species
  • S. acuminata Salter, 1856
  • S. boliviana Kjellesvig-Waering, 1973
  • S. dubia Laurie, 1899
  • †?S. stylops Salter, 1859

Slimonia is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Slimonia have been discovered in deposits of Silurian age in South America and Europe. Classified as part of the family Slimonidae alongside the related Salteropterus, the genus contains three valid species, S. acuminata from Lesmahagow, Scotland, S. boliviana from Cochabamba, Bolivia and S. dubia from the Pentland Hills of Scotland and one dubious species, S. stylops, from Herefordshire, England. The generic name is derived from and honors Robert Slimon, a fossil collector and surgeon from Lesmahagow.

Out of the four described species of Slimonia, three measured below or up to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length. Only S. acuminata was larger, with the largest specimens measuring 100 centimetres (39 in) in length. Though this is large for a predatory arthropod, Slimonia would be exceeded in length by later and more derived (more "advanced") members of the closely related pterygotid family of eurypterids, which would become the largest known arthropods to ever live.