Horseshoe crabs: 'Living fossils' vital for vaccine safety

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By Agence France-Presse
Published July 01, 2022

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On a bright moonlit night, a team of scientists and volunteers head out to a protected beach along the Delaware Bay to survey horseshoe crabs that spawn in their millions along the US East Coast from late spring to early summer.

The group make their way up the shoreline laying a measuring frame on the sand, counting the individuals inside it to help generate a population estimate, and setting right those unfortunate enough to have been flipped onto their backs by the high tide.

With their helmet-like shells, tails that resemble spikes and five pairs of legs connected to their mouths, horseshoe crabs, or Limulidae, aren't immediately endearing.

https://www.rawstory.com/horseshoe-crabs-living-fossils-vital-for-vaccine-safety/

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1. Crabs in name only.

More closely related to spiders and scorpions.

[Golden Raisin]

2. They are amazing and look exactly like they

have been around for over 400 million years (that sort of prehistoric, "living fossil" look.) Their blue blood is essential for medical research. I grew up on Great South Bay in the 1950s where they were numerous and a big part of my childhood exposure to Nature and the Sea.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Going to Jersey "downna shore" (expecially Cape May) as kids

we saw those creatures when they went through their mating and would occasionally find one - a stranded one (along with piles of seaweed and even beached starfish) at different times during the summer.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/oceancity/horseshoe-crab-orgy-happening-coast-new-jersey