HORSESHOE CRAB

HORSESHOE CRAB

Apparently horseshoe crabs are one of the oldest species on Earth. They were in existence before the dinosaurs.

Their smooth shell gives them an alien appearances and it is established that they haven't changed in the 200 million years.

It is a misconception that they were named crabs because they are more related to scorpions and spiders.

Over all these million of years they still come out of the sea, in the summer, and lay their eggs in the sand on the beaches of the eastern United States. The females lay about 80,000 eggs each in a scraped out hollow in the sand on the beach. While they doing this, the male clinging to them with their forelegs. The moment those eggs are laid the male fertilises it.

Although the horseshoe crab is protected by their shell from predators, but the birds will flock there to eat as many eggs as they can get. Some migratory birds, most properly, time their flight to be there at the same time as the horseshoe crab's eggs are laid. The birds’ migration is from South Africa to their Arctic breeding ground.

It is surprising, with these invasions of great amount of birds,  the horseshoe crab has not developed to lay their eggs at sea. However, one explanation is that they can't change the pattern even over those millions of years. On the other hands that even those enormous number of birds apparently can't consume all the eggs and therefore the surviving eggs will make sure the species will not die out. In spite of the world has changed tremendously for them, pollution mainly, they are still surprisingly successful in breeding and preventing of becoming another endangered species.