Eurypterids of this type, currently assigned to the genus, Adelophthalmus, are known from many regions in North America and Europe. The Mazon Creek Fauna of Illinois has yielded many specimens of Adelophthalmus preserved in the famous siderite nodules retrieved from coal bed sequences of Pennsylvanian Age. There are also occurrences in Kansas and Oklahoma, and more recent material from New Mexico (see ).
There appears to be a revival in research on the many aspects of eurypterid paleobiology and more detailed study of precise horizons within eurypterid sequences, e.g. the Salina, Bertie and Helderberg Groups of New York.
For a current understanding of Adelophthalmus, see: "A redescription of the Late Carboniferous eurypterids Adelophthalmus granosus von Meyer, 1853 and A. zadrai Pribyl, 1952" by O. Erik Tetlie and Jason A. Dunlop. Mitt. Mus. Nat.kd. Berl., Geowiss. Reihe 8 (2005), 3-12. To learn more, do a Google! Search of Lepidoderma & Adelophthalmus.
By Carboniferous Time, eurypterids may have all been living in fresh water regimes. Most are associated with abundant plant remains including coal beds. Exactly when the transition took place is not known. Even in the Late Devonian, Grossopterus is found among the Middle or Late Devonian 'plant beds' of the Gilboa Forest., apparently along deltaic margins where early swamps were prominent.
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