Graeophonus
Graeophonus is an extinct genus of tailless whip scorpion described from three species found in the Carboniferous fossil record. The genus is known from two, or possibly three, species described from North America and England. "Graeophonus" is related to the modern African genus "Paracharon" and has been placed in the same family, Paracharontidae. Description. A single fossil from the Cape Breton Island was interpreted as a fossil dragonfly larvae and described by Samuel Hubbard Scudder in 1876 as "Libellula carbonaria". The fossil was very incomplete, consisting of a solitary opisthosoma. With the discovery of more complete fossils from Mazon  Creek, Illinois, and Joggins, Nova Scotia, Samuel Scudder redescribed the fossils as amblypygids and moved the species to a new genus, "Graeophonus" as Graeophonus carbonarius. While describing the British species, "Graeophonus anglicus", Reginald Innes Pocock noted significant differences between the Nova Scotian and more complete Mazon Creek fossils. As a result he erected the species Graeophonus scudderi to accommodate the Mazon Creek specimen, and restricted species "G. carbonarius" to the Canadian specimens. It was later suggested by Reginald Pocock in 1913 that the two species, "G. carbonarius" and "G. scudderi" were indeed the same, and this has resulted in confusion  over both the name to be used and number of species present in North America. Graeophonus anglicus has been found in the English Middle Coal Measures of Coseley, Staffordshire. Known from ten specimens that are now deposited in the British Museum, the species was named by Reginald Pocock in 1911. The size of more complete "G. anglicus" specimens ranges from . The type specimen, BMNH In 31233, was recovered from the Claycroft Open Works in Coseley. The partly complete long specimen shows a distinct pear-shaped ocular tubercle on the carapace, indicating the species was not blind. The morphology of both  the abdomen and pedipalps in "Graeophonus" is very similar to the modern genus "Paracharon". While "Paracharon" is notably blind, this is thought to be a secondary result of living almost exclusively within termite mounds. Thus the blindness was not considered a reason to exclude "Graeophonus" from Paracharontidae.