Horseshoe Crab, in Odisha

From the archive record

Seen in Orissa, India. Horseshoe crabs are said to carry a promising potential future cure for cancer, as a result of a compound in their blue blood. NASA is studying various facets of this interesting ancient creature for applications in space travel for human beings. Horseshoe crabs are arthropods that live in shallow ocean waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms. Very rarely do they come to the shore, and this too is mostly for mating. They belong to Chelicerata and Family Limulidae. The entire body of the horseshoe crab is protected by a hard shell. They have two large compound eyes and multiple smaller simple ones atop the carapace. They have five pairs of legs for walking, swimming and moving food into the mouth. The long, straight, rigid tails can be used to flip themselves over if th