Welcome to Horseshoe Crab Biology!
Above is a picture of an
Atlantic horseshoe crab.
Welcome to the realm of the Limulus
polyphemus! In this website you
will explore the intriguing world of the
Atlantic horseshoe crab. This animal
has the shape of a
horseshoe giving this organism its common
name. An adult
horseshoe crab is brown with a long skinny
pointed tail as seen in the photo above.
Underneath the hard
exoskeleton shell there is a completely
different appearance. The horseshoe
crab has has six
appendages, a pair of chelicera, ten legs,
six book gills, and averages 7" by
12" in size. The horseshoe crab
is often mistaken to be related to other
crabs because of its common name. The
truth is, this organism is more closely
related to spiders, mites, and scorpions! To
learn more about two different species of spiders
that the horseshoe crab is related to,
click
here for the
zebra spider and click
here to view the Gasteracantha
cacriformis. To explore more about a species
of scorpion like the water scorpion, click
here.
Uncovering the amazing life of the
Limulus polyphemus is just a few clicks
away!
To learn more about the classification of the horseshoe crab click here!
Want to learn about other fascinating organisms? Visit MultipleOranisms.net.