New York: home to the Empire State Building, dollar pizza slices, iconic yellow cabs and the first Eurypterus fossil to ever be discovered. Okay, so it’s no Lady Liberty, but the largest individual discovered was estimated to be 60 cm.

Also known as ‘sea scorpions’, Eurypterids were both predators and hunters, feasting on a diet of trilobites, cephalopods and worms. Although they had no backbone, they were heavily armoured and had vicious grasping claws that they used to render prey utterly helpless. Eurypterids thrived in shallow marine environments during the Paleozoic Era, but some of them could also walk on land - scientists think they were among the first animal groups to make the transition from sea to land.