Probably one of the most successful video game franchises in recent years, Monster Hunter has always been a series that has captured the imagination of many people with its fantastical yet realistic creatures. From the scary Vaal Hazak to the goofy...
Arthropods are one of the most successful phylum in all of Earth's evolutionary history. First appearing during the Cambrian period, these lifeforms quickly exploded in diversity, taking on body plans which seemed truly alien in appearance and creating ecological niches that until then never existed.
For a long time, Arthropods were the undisputed rulers of not just the oceans, but the entire world; that was until the Devonian, when Fish began overpowering them. But while this phylum may have no longer been top dog in the water, those who had already crawled out onto land became more diverse than ever before.
For millions of years, the phylum would only continue to expand, conquering the land, waterways and even the skies. Eventually the Carboniferous period came around, and it ushered in the age of the Arthropods, hosting some of the biggest, strangest, and most amazing invertebrates. It was during that age that the Titanocimexes appeared. This enigmatic class never managed to become the biggest or most impressive Arthropods at the time, but the very first members did have one huge advantage: their adaptability.
Unlike most of their competitors, the body plans of early Titanocimexes weren't designed to be particularly good or bad at doing things. This allowed them to thrive in the background, taking up any open niche, whether it be from semi-aquatic creatures or arboreal animals. This flexibility would end up being the saving grace of the Titanocimexes, as observed when the Therapsids took over and their numbers were barely affected by the change in power. However, the true advantage of being generalists would become most apparent during the Permian extinction.
While the great dying wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of all life on Earth, the tiny and adaptable Titanocimexes continued to survive, and ultimately became one of the few remaining lifeforms who would repopulate the planet. The Triassic would be the age when the class would finally begin evolving into what we know today. The Titanocimexes would briefly see some success with the first true Neopterons, but most would eventually be forced back down to small generalists after the Triassic extinction. This pattern continued all the way to the early Eocene, when these invertebrates finally took a stand and became the modern world's largest Arthropod.
All over the world, thousands of Neopterons and Carapaceons would begin battling for supremacy; however in Asia, another suborder would find great success in this new world: the Temnocerans. Nicknamed the false spiders, these Titanocimexes would thrive for millions of years; however, most of them would go extinct once the first of a series of ice ages hit.
But although many of them disappeared forever, some Temnocerans did manage to survive. Despite no longer being very common today, the species which continue to survive are incredibly well adapted to the niches they fill, and very few do this better than Dermandarachne gypceri.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Also known as Nerscyllas, these Temnocerans can be found throughout the temperate coniferous forest ecoregions on North America's western coast, and grow to be 20 centimeters in length, 12 in height, and possess a 30 centimeter leg span. Although far from being the biggest predators in this area, the Titanocimexes are more than capable of taking down prey that's much larger than themselves.
