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'Living fossil' crabs mysteriously dying in Japan

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Horseshoe crabs arthropods and not crustaceans like regular "crabs". Their structure is different so they do not walk sideways.

True. In fact they are actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions than they are to true crabs.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Interesting... on the one hand...

The crab is designated an “endangered species” in Japan, where its population has shrunk as its coastal habitat has been destroyed.

and on the other...

The blood of one species of horseshoe crab contains a sensitive coagulant that can detect tiny amounts of bacteria. Since the 1970s, it has been harvested and used by scientists to test the sterility of medical equipment and intravenous drugs.

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?

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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.

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No worries, there are plenty of old fossils in the Japanese government.

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Horseshoe crabs were such a pain in the duff when I was a kid in New England.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Typhoons?

I have no knowledge on the subject at all.

Just thought I would chip in.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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.

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The crab is designated an “endangered species” in Japan, where its population has shrunk as its coastal habitat has been destroyed.

So what is Japan doing about that? Questions just left unanswered

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. Dont you think this has to do with the excessive radiation still pouring into japanese waters from Fukushima? Sounds like the effects of radatIon.

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?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@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.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Dont you think this has to do with the excessive radiation still pouring into japanese waters from Fukushima? Sounds like the effects of radation.

-4 ( +6 / -10 )

It seems that all creatures on Earth die out someday.

Not alligators. Or cockroaches.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

"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.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

It seems that all creatures on Earth die out someday.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

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