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The smallest species is the mangrove horseshoe crab (C. rotundicauda) and the largest is the tri-spine horseshoe crab (T. tridentatus). [ 44 ] On average, males of C. rotundicauda are about 30 centimeters (12 inches) long, including a telson that is about 15 cm (6 in), and a carapace about 15 cm (6 in) wide. [ 45 ]
The tri-spine horseshoe crab is the largest of the living horseshoe crab species. [8] Like the other species, females grow larger than males. The largest females of the tri-spine horseshoe crab can be as much as 79.5 cm (31.3 in) long, including their tail. [9]
The group has hardly changed in appearance in hundreds of millions of years; the modern horseshoe crabs look almost identical to prehistoric genera and are considered to be living fossils. The most notable difference between ancient and modern forms is that the abdominal segments in present species are fused into a single unit in adults.
Leading scientists also have denounced the commission’s computer model, which recommends harvesting 175,000 female horseshoe crabs and 500,000 male horseshoe crabs for bait annually.
Atlantic horseshoe crab on the shore at Brighton Beach, New York City. The Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), also known as the American horseshoe crab, is a species of horseshoe crab, a kind of marine and brackish chelicerate arthropod. [1] It is found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast of North America. [1]
Underside of a female horseshoe crab showing the legs and book gills. Book lungs are thought to have evolved from book gills, water-breathing structures among marine chelicerates. Although they have a similar book-like structure, book gills are external, while book lungs are internal. [6]
Horseshoe crab spawning season. In the tidal flats near Barnstable Harbor, a ritual that predates the dinosaurs will soon begin. Horseshoe crab spawning season.
Tachypleus gigas, commonly known as the Indo-Pacific horseshoe crab, [3] Indonesian horseshoe crab, [4] Indian horseshoe crab, [5] or southern horseshoe crab, [6] is one of the four extant (living) species of horseshoe crab. It is found in coastal water in South and Southeast Asia at depths to 40 m (130 ft). [2]