>>9419569In 1995, paleontologists Braddy, Richard John Aldridge and Johannes N. Theron described a well-preserved eurypterid from the Soom Shale Member of the Table Mountain Sandstone, Cape Province, South Africa, and named it O. augusti. It is based on two specimens of which one preserves soft tissues. The holotype (GSSA C373, housed at the Geological Survey of South Africa in Pretoria along with the paratype) was discovered by August Patrick Pedro, honoured in the specific epithet augusti. It differed from the rest of the species by the lack of large epimera in the pretelson, wider body proportions, the short length of the postabdomen and telson, the lanceolate form of the latter, the two projections of the eighth podomere and in a distal spine longer than in the rest of the species. The paratype, GSSA C427, is the largest known specimen. O. augusti was also compared to the enigmatic Silurian eurypterid Marsupipterus sculpturatus, concluding that the differences between the telson (the only known part of Marsupipterus) of both species are probably preservational.[2]
