Rough thicktail scorpion (Parabuthus raudus). Paratuthus scorpions' venom is quick-acting, so they do not need to rely as much on their pincers to capture prey. Credit: Peter Webb, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

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Scorpions are optimized hunters, whose skills have been honed through millions of years of evolution. An armored exoskeleton, strong pincers, a poisonous stinger —almost everything about their anatomy aids in either hunting insects, small mammals, and reptiles, or defending themselves from snakes and birds. But for years, entomologists were aware of a potential secret weapon in the arthropods’ biology : metallic reinforcements.

Researchers previously detected trace metals in the exoskeletons of at least some of the estimated 3,000 known scorpion species.…