Story highlights Scientists are studying a creature called the Pentecopterus that lived 467 million years ago

It was discovered in 2010 in a fossil bed in a meteorite crater in northeastern Iowa

Pentecopterus belonged to the eurypterid family, the ancestors of spiders, lobsters and ticks

(CNN) In the prehistoric oceans, this was one bad bug.

Scientists are marveling at the world's oldest sea scorpion -- the Pentecopterus, named after a Greek warship.

Imagine a creature nearly 6 feet in length, with a long head, a narrow body and large limbs for grasping and trapping prey.

It was part of the eurypterid family, a group of ancient creatures that are the ancestors of modern spiders, lobsters and ticks.

"Pentecopterus is large and predatory, and eurypterids must have been important predators in these early Palaeozoic ecosystems," said James Lamsdell with Yale University, who was the lead author of a study about the creature.