What is a horseshoe crab?
Quick Answer
A horseshoe crab is a marine arthropod with a hard shell and blue blood, more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to true crabs.
The Full Story
Despite its name, a horseshoe crab is not actually a crab and belongs to an ancient lineage of chelicerates. It has survived for hundreds of millions of years, with fossils dating back to the Ordovician period. Its blue blood contains copper-based hemocyanin and is prized in biomedical testing because it clots in response to certain bacterial toxins. Horseshoe crabs are important ecologically because their eggs feed migratory shorebirds, especially along parts of the Atlantic coast.
Key Facts
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