![]() There are also 2 small chelicera appendages that help guide food into the mouth.Īnd this is what they look like upside down. As the legs are moving, food is crushed and macerated. ![]() ![]() The base of each leg is covered with inward pointing spines called gnathobases that move food towards the mouth located between the legs. ![]() The last pair of legs has a leaflike structure at the terminal end that is used for pushing and clearing away sediments as the crab burrows into marine bottom. Each has a small claw at the tip except the last pair. Five pairs of walking legs or pedipalps enable the horseshoe crab to easily move along benthic sediments. The horseshoe crab has 6 pairs of appendages on the posterior side of the prosoma. Here’s a description of the legs of modern animals: Horseshoe crabs are in a different subphylum, the Chelicerata, more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to the crabs we know.Ī good website on the group describes its morphology, behavior, and medical uses (yes, they’re useful in making drugs see here). They are arthopods, but not “true” crabs, which are in the subphylum Crustacea. There are four species of horseshoe crabs in the world, with the most familiar to Americans being Limulus polyphemus, the Atlantic horseshoe crab. ![]()
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