330 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, a marine-dwelling arthropod hoisted itself out of the water and dragged its tail-like telson across the wet mud.
The record of this early excursion is a 6-meter-long trackway preserved in sandstone from Scotland. The trackway is attributed to a euyrpterid or “sea scorpion” whose fossil remains are known from the area.
The trackway consists of two parallel rows of footprints and a continuous groove in the middle marking the telson dragmark. The width of the trackway, indicates that the animal was 1 meter wide, and perhaps 2 meters long. The telson drag mark suggests that the animal was moving out of water, because underwater the eurypterid would not have dragged its telson.
The trackway confirms suspicions that some eurypterid could leave their aquatic habitat and venture onto land. These footprints also have the distinction of being the largest known tracks of an invertebrate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8632427.stm
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