Horseshoe Crabs are really spiders-arachnids of the sea.
The ancient species has been around for years- something like 400million.
A living fossil- even a “live museum” exhibiting and supporting an array of organisms such as barnacles, algae, and Slipper snails.
I have read that the Horseshoe Crab is uniquely equipped with a “sword-tail” detecting light, and that this spider has nine eyes!
But these weeks they only have eyes for each other as they crawl and scoot to shallow waters for breeding season.
Tomorrow night’s full moon may be very inviting-as the animals are guided toward each other with the help of lunar and high tidal cycles
Like today, East Harbor may be the place to take a quick peek.
Then there is the Spider crab which actually IS a crab not a spider, but sat down beside me anyway…..