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Horseshoe Crabs Essay

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The Horseshoe crab, is in the phylum classification of Arthropods. The Limulidae, or the horseshoe crab, is closely related to trilobites which existed about 544 million years ago. There are four different species of horse shoe crabs, the Limulus polyphemus found on the coast of south eastern coast of the US, and three Indo-pacific known as Tachypleus gigas, Tachypleus tridentatus and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda. Horseshoe crabs have long spines on their tails used just to help them flip themselves upright if they get flipped over. In most cases horseshoe crabs mate in places like Delaware or N.J. during the spring and summer. They mate by a male attaching itself to a female using its front claws known as amplexus and they crawl on the …show more content…

As they feed they begin to grow, six days later, they have their first molt. This growth to a juvenile happens 20 days after leaving the nest. Adult horseshoe crabs molt to grow. The adults do not reach maturity until about 11 years and 17 molts later.Males are fully mature. Females must molt 18 times to reach maturity, causing females to be larger than the male horseshoe crab.
Many of the horseshoe crab larvae feed on small nemotodes and polychaetes, but the larger ones feed on an array of sea life including clams, worms, and mussels.
The medical advancements that have been made including using horseshoe crab blood to make clots in human bodies that cannot clot blood themselves. A major anomolie in science, is that their blood is baby blue, and also, they never get sick!!!! Another medical advancement in horseshoe crabs is how they are finding ways to help people who have immunities to penecillin find ways to treat their sicknesses. an agricultural advancement is that the human race has collected the crabs and crushed them using them as fertilizer. The chitin in their shells helps the plants grow

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