Y’know those southwestern paperweights that have scorpions encased in clear acrylic?
I used to have one of those when I was a boy.
It was cool, but creepy, having that scorpion there under the plastic–looking like it was poised to strike.
I’ll probably buy one again next time I run across one–probably at a place that sells knick-knacks in the desert southwest.
But I’ll make sure not to break it open.
Why?
You may have a LIVE scorpion on your hands.
Y’see: There were these paleontologiests in Utah (a rich site of dinosaur fossils) who were encasing a dinosaur fossil in plaster, and apparently they also encased a live scorpion in the plaster.
Flash forward fifteen months and they’re taking the plaster off the dinosaur fossil (with jackhammers), and out of one of the cracks wriggled the trapped scorpion.
It had been in there for over a year without food (insects), water, or air. (Well, maybe a little air was trapped in or seeped through the plaster.)
Turns out that scorpions can do this kind of thing. EXCERPT:
Scorpions, which eat insects, are capable of surviving for months without feeding or moving in a sleep period known as diapause, said Richard Baumann, a Brigham Young University zoologist.
Interestingly, a form of diapause also occurs in mammals, though only at the embryonic stage.
In any event, the scorpion thing is creepy, okay?
That’s a picture of the little guy who survived–at the bottom of a bucket after he was freed from the plaster.
He was later set free to go live out the remainder of his interrupted scorpion life in the wild.
Now, maybe the odds are low of getting and breaking an acrylic paperweight with a live scorpion in it.
But I’m not taking any chances.
Incidentally, this puts a WHOLE new light on those SCORPION SUCKERS. Imagine what could happen while you’re licking one of THOSE!
