PBDB Taxon

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Erettopterus

Eurypterida - Pterygotidae

Discussion

Salter in Huxley and Salter, 1859

Taxonomy

Erettopterus was named by Salter (1859) [Sepkoski's age data: S Ldov D Sieg Sepkoski's reference number: 360]. It is not extant. Its type is Himantopterus bilobus.

It was reranked as Pterygotus (Erettopterus) by Størmer (1955).

It was assigned to Pterygotus by Størmer (1955); to Eurypterida by Sepkoski (2002); and to Pterygotidae by Dunlop et al. (2020), Lamsdell (2025).

Species

E. bilobus (syn. Pterygotus perornatus), E. brodiei, E. canadensis, E. exophthalmus, E. gigas, E. globiceps, E. grandis, E. laticauda, E. marstoni, E. megalodon, E. osiliensis, E. qujingensis, E. salweyi, E. serratus, E. serricaudatus (syn. E. carinatus), E. spatulatus, E. waylandsmithi

Species lacking formal opinion data

E. bilobus, E. saetiger

Synonyms

Necrogammarus is a genus. It is not extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Erettopterus by Lamsdell (2025).

It was assigned to Lobopoda by Sepkoski (2002); and to Pterygotidae by Selden (1986), Dunlop et al. (2020).
Truncatiramus is a genus. It is not extant.

It was synonymized subjectively with Erettopterus by Dunlop et al. (2013), Dunlop et al. (2020).

It was assigned to Eurypterida by Sepkoski (2002).
Himantopterus was named by Salter (1856). It is not extant.

It was replaced with Erettopterus by Salter (1859).

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1856	Himantopterus Salter
1859	Erettopterus Salter
1955	Pterygotus (Erettopterus) Størmer p. 31
1986	Necrogammarus Selden
2002	Erettopterus Sepkoski
2002	Necrogammarus Sepkoski
2002	Truncatiramus Sepkoski
2020	Erettopterus Dunlop et al. p. 26
2020	Necrogammarus Dunlop et al. p. 27
2025	Erettopterus Lamsdell

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Protostomia
—	Ecdysozoa	Aguinaldo et al. 1997
—	Panarthropoda
phylum	Arthropoda	Gravenhorst 1843
—	Deuteropoda

Rank	Name	Author
subphylum	Chelicerata	Heymons 1901
order	Eurypterida	Huxley 1857
suborder	Eurypterina	Novojilov 1962
infraorder	Diploperculata
superfamily	Pterygotoidea	Clarke and Ruedemann 1912
family	Pterygotidae	Clarke and Ruedemann 1912
genus	Erettopterus	Salter 1859

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Erettopterus Salter 1859

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†Erettopterus bilobus Salter 1856

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Invalid names: Pterygotus perornatus Salter 1856 [synonym]

†Erettopterus brodiei Kjellesvig-Waering 1961

†Erettopterus canadensis Dawson 1878

†Erettopterus exophthalmus Kjellesvig-Waering and Leutze 1966

†Erettopterus gigas Salter 1859

†Erettopterus globiceps Clarke and Ruedemann 1912

†Erettopterus grandis Pohlman 1881

†Erettopterus laticauda Schmidt 1883