I find these fascinating creatures and very prehistoric looking. As I am sharing from my archives and looking at a lot of old blog posts to reshare, I found this. We were in Virginia Beach walking along the sand. It is a shell of an old Horseshoe crab. I wondered if its demise was caused by a hungry gull. Their footprints were everywhere, as you might expect from a walk on the beach.
Horseshoe crabs are marine anthropods of the family Limulidae and order Xiphosura or Xiphosurida that live primarily in and around shallow waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms.
A horsehoe crab is best described as a 'living fossil', an ancient, armored arthropod that has remained virtually unchanged for over 450 million years, predating even the dinosaurs. Despite their name they are not true crabs, but more closely related to spiders and scorpions.
There is an amazing amount of information about them online, but I will finish here.
If you want to find out more, you can go to this link. The following photo I found on pixabay.com
Thanks for looking and I hope you are having a great week so far.
I knew about this from watching a nature show about them. Hard to believe the spider thing. But you were so lucky to see one, even though not alive. I'm glad you took a photo. They are so weird! And I guess they are not really in the crab family at all.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing what kind of cancer it is, and thank you for the explanation. We don't have anything like that here.
ReplyDeleteHappy day, hugs Elke
They are so vital to migrating shorebirds in Delaware Bay. Like so many other organisms they have been subject to human exploitation.
ReplyDeleteInteresting reading about the crabs, Denise and I don't believe I've ever seen one of those. Take care.
ReplyDeleteNot very common anymore...thanks for the photo!
ReplyDeletehugs
Donna
I have never seen a horseshoe crab other than in pictures. They are a bit prehistoric looking
ReplyDeleteGreat photo and post on the Horseshoe Crab.
ReplyDeleteTake care, happy Friday! Have a great weekend.
They’ll probably be around until the end of time.
ReplyDeleteYes they are wonderful. Great looking thing :-D
ReplyDeleteGot good news from the physio today. Ankle is stronger and he said to try walking outisde with just one crutch now. Heading in the right direction :-D
I love finding horseshoe crabs. There's a place around in my area where they breed in the fall and you can see them. I haven't been there for a few years, and I wonder if there's still as many as there used to be. Nice post. And thanks for reminding of a new lace to walk. Happy Friday.
ReplyDeleteHave a beautiful day. Hugs. xx.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a complete shell.
ReplyDeleteDear Denise :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about this creature described as an ancient aremored arthropod. Intriguing how it predates the dinosaurs.
Cool! Have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeleteThey are fascinating animals. I'm sure they are a gull's delicacy.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of them but didn't know any of this. Amazing.
ReplyDelete