Horseshoe crabs are often referred to as the "living fossils" of our planet—the four known species, including three in Asia and one in North America, remain nearly identical to their ancient relatives ...

According to curator Kojiro Azumakawa, the horseshoe crab has a bowl-shaped smooth shell, spiny body, crab- or spider-like legs and a long, stout tail. It is a “living fossil” whose appearance ...

The trilobite, an extinct marine arthropod vaguely resembling a horseshoe crab, inhabited the primordial seas that ... in a continental collision 400 million years ago. Studying the fossils of ...

Indeed, researchers are coming to realize that the term “living fossil” is a misnomer. One by one, the classic examples—horseshoe crabs, coelacanths, cycads, and more—have turned out to be very ...

Additionally, horseshoe crabs have a reproductive strategy that includes spawning in large numbers, which increases the chances of survival of offspring despite environmental fluctuations.

Horseshoe crabs — brown, body-armored beasts with long, spiked tails — are living fossils that have survived for a half-billion years. Each spring, horseshoe crabs crawl ashore and lay millions of ...