Horseshoe crabs Delaware bay

At the mouth of the Delaware river with New Jersey to the northeast and Delaware to the South and West Delaware bay. This area is the biggest spawning ground of the horseshoe crab. Bizarrelyi this is an ancient creature that evolved 500 million years ago, and his barely changed in the last 350 million years. As a result, it can quite accurately be referred to as a living fossil.

They grow up to 50 centimeters in length covered with a hard curved shell they have a dozen or so mainly Claude legs and gills allowing to them breed to breathe both underwater and for brief periods in the air. The tale is not a weapon and appears to have a primary purpose of writing itself after it turns over accidentally. Extremely valuable in medical research, much of what we know about eye function and malfunction is as a result of studying these large compound eyes. They also have an incredible immune system which traps bacteria in a clot of gel-like substance. Blood samples are taken so as to test for intravenous drugs and finding remedies for diseases of becoming immune to antibiotics. In fact all intravenous drugs have been tested in horseshoe crabs while the horse shoe crabs are left unharmed.

These crabs eggs are an important part of the local food chain with migratory birds stopping off for top-up. In particular the red knot which flyers from Brazil to the Arctic each spring arrive at their lowest weight and fill up on these eggs. It should be noted that in recent times these birds have halved in number as a result of declined in the crabs which fishermen have been using as bait – thankfully due to human effort this human caused decline, appears to be coming to an end.