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Atlantic Horseshoe Crab

Limulus polyphemu

Photo by TylerGraden
Published on Project Noah
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38.7941, -75.094

Field Notes

Description:

This big guy (or girl) was on a sand bar during low tide attempting to burrow into the sand after apparently giving up on moving towards the receding water (you can see the trail left behind in the second picture). This was one of the few live horseshoe crabs I spotted on the beach, though there were hundreds of dead crabs scattered along the rest if the beach.

Habitat:

Beach in the Delaware Bay, on an overcast day after heavy rains.

Notes:

I was tempted to move it into the water, but decided to let nature take it's course since these horseshoe crabs & their eggs play a vital role in the diet of the hundreds of migratory bird species that travel along the Atlantic coast. If it makes anybody feel better, the tide was on it's way back in.

Reference Links:

Atlantic Horseshoe Crab - Limulus polyphemus - Overview

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (1)
Ava T-B
Since you know the identity of your organism (from your use of its common name), please go ahead and fill in the scientific name field. In this case for the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab it is Limulus polyphemus. This allows the spotting to be correctly entered into the Project Noah database and become a complete record, letting groups and individuals use the data and find your spotting. It also takes the spotting off the "unidentified" list. If you are interested in learning how species are named and why this is important, see Project Noah's blog entry http://blog.projectnoah.org/post/28702494728/whats-in-a-name Thanks!

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Coastal Wildlife of Northeastern U.S.
Mission
Wildlife of Northeastern USA
Mission
Delaware Wildlife
Mission
Wildlife of the DELMARPA
Photographed
PublishedJune 10, 2013

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