11-4-15

Alexandra Ewing

Horseshoe Crab

Limulus polyphemus

The Horseshoe Crab’s habitat is in the Atlantic Coast waters and the region of the Horseshoe Crab is on the seafloor. This organism belongs to the domain of Eukarya and the kingdom of Animalia. The Horseshoe Crab is classified into the phylum of Arthropoda and the class of Herostomata. This organism is also in the order of Xiphosurida and the family of Limulidae.  The genus of this organism is Limulus and the species is polyphemus.  The Horseshoe Crab has radial symmetry and is endothermic, meaning that it is warm-blooded.  This animal is a heterotroph due to eating plants and animals.  A few of this organisms prey include worms and clams.  A few predators of the Horseshoe Crab include sharks and sea turtles.  An interesting fact that I found about the Horseshoe Crab is that it’s ancestors date all the way back to 450 million years ago, that was before dinosaurs! A structural adaptation for this organism is that it has a sharp tail to defend itself from predators and to help swim.  A behavioral adaptation for the Horseshoe Crab would be that it’s brown color helps him to camouflage with his sandy environment. Another behavioral adaptation for this organism would be how it burrows into the sand. The Horseshoe Crab has a large shell on top and six legs on the bottom that help it to crawl.  Another interesting fact is that they are more closely related to spiders than crabs.

this picture is from http://animalia-life.com/horseshoe-crab.html