The Horseshoe Crab’s Terrifying Pedigree

The horseshoe crab is an interesting critter, remaining relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. One species lives in the Atlantic Ocean along the North American coast, while the other three species live in the waters off Southeast and East Asia. It looks sort of like what you imagine might happen if a facehugger from the Alien movies mated with a large beetle.

You’ve probably never wondered what a horseshoe crab orgy looks like, but if you read past this line, you’re going to find out.

Horseshoe crabs mating in the Delaware Bay of Southern New Jersey, by Asturnut (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikipedia

Of course I would find the horseshoe crab fascinating, because I’m into that sort of thing. Also, of course, I would want to learn more about it for the benefit of my reader(s). And whoa, does the horseshoe crab get scary when you dig into its lineage. Continue reading

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