Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always ending with a stinger. The evolutionary history of scorpions goes back 435 million years. They mainly live in deserts but have adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. There are over 2,500 described species, with 22 extant (living) families recognized to date. Their taxonomy is being revised to account for 21st-century genomic studies.
Scorpion
Allopalaeophonus, formerly called Palaeophonus hunteri, from the Silurian of Scotland
Palaeophonus nuncius, a Silurian fossil from Sweden
Centruroides vittatus, the striped bark scorpion, a member of Buthidae, the largest family of scorpions
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism. It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators.
Solitary predator: a polar bear feeds on a bearded seal it has killed.
Social predators: meat ants cooperate to feed on a cicada far larger than themselves.
Spider wasps paralyse and eventually kill their hosts, but are considered parasitoids, not predators.
Carnivorous plant: sundew engulfing an insect