I went to the beach this past weekend, and I brought you back something - it's a horsehoe crab.
Sadly, I found that I had just missed the annual horseshoe crab festival held in Milton, Delaware. (It's actually the Horsehoe Crab and Shorebird Festival, but we don't care about those pretty shorebirds on this blog.)
If you wonder why horseshoe crabs deserve a festival, I suggest you check out horseshoecrab.org. It's the website of a group that's devoted to their conservation, and it turns out, they're pretty amazing creatures. Did you know they have ten eyes? And they've been around since before the dinosaurs? And their blood is used to test medical products for bacterial contamination? No, you didn't. Go check it out.
-Wombat (No Relation)
I've only seen one horsehoe crab in the wild and that's been some years ago now, but such a cool creature leaves a lasting impression.
ReplyDeleteThe show Nature also had an episode co-starring the horsehoe crab:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/crash-a-tale-of-two-species/introduction/592/
Thanks for the photo and info.
Nature: A Tale of Two Species
ReplyDeleteSorry, I forgot tags.
Thier blood is also blue, how cool is that?
ReplyDeleteIf you wanted something REALLY ugly, you should have a picture of it flipped over. OMG that's the worst!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI did, actually, but I spoiled it by having a cute dog in the photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wombatarama/5795338576
ReplyDelete(Sorry for not being able to get the tags right even after deleting two earlier versions of this post. sigh.)