with eyes placed on the rim of it and positioned forwards, the fact that all walking legs possess spines and that they decrease in length the further back they were placed as well as the cylindrically shaped and sharp telson (the posteriormost division of the body). In comparison with many other eurypterids, Eusarcana was a rather large animal, with the largest species (also the type species) E. scorpionis reaching lengths of 80 cm (31.5 in). In comparison, the species E. obesus was significantly smaller, with the largest specimen only being 4 cm (1.5 in) long. The appearance of Eusarcana is somewhat odd in comparison with other eurypterids, not only in its overall shape and proportions but also in that the surface of its exoskeleton is covered in small scale-like ornamentation that is circular in shape, crowded and small in size which differentiates it from other eurypterids in which such ornamentation is usually triangular. Overall, Eusarcana is mostly similar in appearance to other carcinosomatid eurypterids, particularly Carcinosoma which shares its forwardly positioned eyes, and is primarily defined by the small degree of spinosity on its second to fifth pair of appendages and its curved telson. History of research Original description and subsequent discoveries Eusarcana was first described as "Eusarcus" by the American geologists August R. Grote and William Henry Pitt based on fossils recovered from the Pridoli-age Buffalo waterlime of New York State. This name derives from the Ancient Greek εὖ, (eu-) meaning "true", and σάρξ (sarx), meaning "flesh", meaning "true flesh". The designated type species was E. scorpionis. Though Grote and Pitt did not provide a generic diagnosis for the genus, the species was well diagnosed with a number of distinctive characters. Furthermore, the genus of Grote and Pitt was seemingly based solely on outlines and shape, which prompted some researchers, such as the prominent English geologist Henry Woodward, to regard the genus as lacking generic characters and as such being invalid, referring E. scorpionis to Eurypterus on the grounds that several British species of Eurypterus, notably E. scorpiodes and E. punctatus (today recognized as species of Carcinosoma), were similar in shape. Unbeknownst to Grote and Pitt, Eusarcus had already been named as a genus of extant (currently living) laniatorid harvestmen of the family Gonyleptidae, in 1833 and as such constituted a preoccupied name. The preoccupied nature of the name was not immediately recognized, and it continued to be used