About this item

No creature has quite the sting in our mythology and folklore as the scorpion. From the dawn of human civilization they have been a dangerous figure in our imaginations - poisonous, precise, and deadly quiet - but as Louise M. Pryke shows in this book, their bad reputation has overshadowed many exceptional qualities. Scurrying across hundreds of millions of years and across every continent except Antarctica, this book gives the scorpion its due as one of nature's longest lasting survivors. Indeed scorpions are older than dinosaurs. An ancient arthropod, their form - notable for its pair of pincers and an elegant tail that holds a menacing stinger high in the air in a permanent striking position - hasn't changed since prehistoric times, though today there are some 1700 different species.