[ IP ] a warning carved in stone ?

Hi, my name is Adam Schofield, and I ’ m a junior research fellow at the Breckenridge Paleobiology Institute. After looking at the picture that you posted on Imgur, I am fairly certain I can identify the imprint left on that rock. 
 
 Are you certain that this is a carving? From what I can tell, this is actually the remains of an organism that has been fast-fossilized in a Rhyolite trap. As a matter of fact, it is an extremely rare and prehistoric forerunner of scorpion. 
 
 Believed to have gone extinct sometime in the late Devonian period ( about 370 million years ago ), *Buthidae biourados* ( literally meaning “ two tails ” ) is still classified as a family of scorpions due to the similarity of organs and visual appearance. There is some controversy, however, because this species has only four legs -- you can see two pairs of legs on each side of the abdomen ( at the lower part of the picture from our angle ), leading some scientists to call this the “ false scorpion ”. On the farthest-anterior position of this organism ( the bottom outline of the imprint ), you can see the trace where the claws used to be. And as you can probably tell from the picture, this scorpion had just reached maturity. On its posterior end ( its backside, at the top part of the picture from our angle ) are two well-preserved imprints of stingers. *B. biourados*, just like “ true ” scorpions today, used their stingers to stun and discharge venom into their enemies. 
 
 Here ’ s the interesting part: the bulge in the middle of the two stingers is its *venom sac*. That ’ s right, instead of using glands next to the stinger to produce venom ( as all scorpions use today ), this species actually carried around a refilling “ pouch ” of venom. When frightened or alarmed, the sac would shoot venom into one of two stingers, depending on the type of enemy. When hunting for prey, *B. biourados* would discharge venom from its left-side tail; when defending itself against predators, it would sting with its right-side tail. Even though scientists remain unsure why this species had such specialization of stingers, they maintain that this must have aided in its survival. One hypothesis focuses on the “ back-up ” idea; if one of the two stingers became infected or was torn off, the scorpion could simply switch to its “ back-up ” stinger to survive. Another hypothesis centers on the idea that the two stingers could be used to anchor the scorpion and stabilize its movement. In other words, the tails could act as an auxiliary pair of legs to walk with. 
 
 To be honest, I ’ m surprised to find this specimen in such good condition. Where were you hiking when you found this? If I were you, I ’ d call your local Forest Service, Geologic club or university. You might have stumbled upon a very rare fossil! 

