Egyptians Scorpions

Scorpions   are arachnids and have eight legs like their cousins—spiders, mites, and ticks. They can quickly grab an insect with their pincers and whip their telson, the poisonous tip of their segmented tail forward and sting their prey. They use their poison not only to kill prey, but also to defend themselves from predators.

Scorpions look like small lobsters and are believed to be the first animals to move from water to land hundreds of millions of years ago. They had gills instead of  lungs. These hardy, adaptable arthropods have been around since before the age of the dinosaurs, and they are nothing if not survivors.

Fossils of scorpions from Scotland hundreds of millions of years ago show that their appearance hasn’t changed over the millennia, but they are now half the size of their ancient ancestors.

They are commonly thought of as desert dwellers, but they also live in Brazilian forests, British Columbia, North Carolina, and even the Himalayas.There are over 1,200 scorpion species, but only 30 or 40 species around the world have strong enough poison to kill a person. Each species has a special type of venom that works well against a chosen prey.

Scorpions typically eat insects, but when food is scarce, they can slow their metabolism to as little as one-third the typical rate for arthropods. This technique enables some species to use little oxygen and live on only one insect per year. 

Yet even with lowered metabolism, the scorpion has the ability to spring quickly to the hunt when the opportunity presents itself—a gift that many hibernating species lack.

Such survival skills allow scorpions to live in some of the planet's toughest environments. 

Researchers have even frozen scorpions overnight, only to put them in the sun the next day and watch them thaw out and walk away.

But there is one thing scorpions have a difficult time living without—soil. They are burrowing animals, so in areas of permafrost or heavy grasses, where loose soil is not available, scorpions may not be able to survive. 

FAST FACTS
Scorpions are carnivores.

The largest scorpions are about 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) long, and the smallest are about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters).

Scorpions usually live for three to eight years. 

Scorpions are nocturnal, or active at night.

Birds, owls, and baboons eat scorpions.

Scorpions glow under ultraviolet light.

Scorpions can survive being in a freezer overnight!

The Egyptians believed scorpions had supernatural powers and the goddess Selquet had a scorpion on her head.

Scorpions molt, or shed their exoskeleton five to seven times as they grow to full size. They hide while their new outer skeleton grows and hardens because they are defenseless without their protective shell.