The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2016 AFP'Living fossil' crabs mysteriously dying in Japan
TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2016 AFP
14 Comments
Login to comment
kwatt
It seems that all creatures on Earth die out someday.
OssanAmerica
"confounding experts who study the alien-like sidewalkers."
Horseshoe crabs arthropods and not crustaceans like regular "crabs". Their structure is different so they do not walk sideways.
Strangerland
Not alligators. Or cockroaches.
Eric Kalmus
Dont you think this has to do with the excessive radiation still pouring into japanese waters from Fukushima? Sounds like the effects of radation.
Luke Stoltenberg
@Eric Kalmus Fukushima and KitaKyushu are at opposite ends of Japan. Radiation levels in water decrease proportionally to the cubic distance from the source. That is extremely unlikely.
Himajin
What makes it 'sound like radiation'? It's over 1200km around the coast from Fukushima to Kita-Kyushu.
Why aren't other creatures dying? Why aren't horseshoe crabs all along the coast dying from Fukushima on down?
sf2k
So what is Japan doing about that? Questions just left unanswered
sensei258
I lived in Delaware for two years. There were always dead ones around, especially if they got stranded after mating, so no big deal. They've been around for millions of years, and will be here after humans are extinct.
garymalmgren
Typhoons?
I have no knowledge on the subject at all.
Just thought I would chip in.
Frederic Bastiat
Horseshoe crabs were such a pain in the duff when I was a kid in New England.
Serrano
No worries, there are plenty of old fossils in the Japanese government.
OssanAmerica
Seems hiorseshoe crabs are somewhat endangered in Japan. In southeast asia where they are eaten in some parts you can some times fid them in the local fish markets. Horseshoe crabs were widely used as bait for eel traps on the US east coast, NY-NJ ages ago back when there was a commercial eel fishery. Always a scary sight to little kids on the Long Island beaches in the summer.
Thunderbird2
Interesting... on the one hand...
and on the other...
That aside it IS a bit strange that so many are dying at once. Would sea warming really reach the ocean floor where these beasties live?
bruinfan
True. In fact they are actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions than they are to true crabs.