What do you know about the horseshoe crab, Horseshoe crab belongs to a very ancient marine arthropods, the earliest existed in the Ordovician period of 475 million years ago, there is a "living fossil of the sea," said , now belongs to the world's one of the endangered species.

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The horseshoe crab lives in the shallow sandy seabed, is a carnivore, mainly annelids and mollusks, and sometimes also eat some algae. The horseshoe crab has a long growth cycle, taking 13 years to complete the clan, because the blood contains copper ions, so the blood will appear blue.

There were originally hundreds of species of horseshoe crabs, but because of increased human activity, habitat destruction and fishing, there are now only four species left in the world, mainly on the east coast of North America, in the Gulf of Mexico and in Asia.

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The horseshoe crab is native to the coastal areas of China, Indonesia and Japan, and is widely distributed in China. However, because of global warming and changes in the marine environment, the horseshoe crab is unable to return to its homeland, so it is designated as an endangered species, and you need to release the horseshoe crab if you come across it.

The man in Jiangsu province bought back the strange creature in the market is the Chinese horseshoe crab, originally he did not know, wait until his son confirmed that this belongs to the national protection of animals, so the man immediately contacted the local agricultural bureau, until the law enforcement officers arrived to identify the confirmation of belonging to the national second-class protection of animals, then immediately after it will be released.

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The value of horseshoe crabs is very high, after extracting the blood cells in its blood, it can be made into a freeze-dried horseshoe crab preparations, which can be used as a reagent for detecting the endotoxin in the LSP, and can quickly diagnose endotoxemia and other related diseases, and save the lives of many patients who are dying. lives of dying patients.

Also because of its own value, there are many factories that use its shell as a raw material to make chitin, and also because the Chinese horseshoe crab itself has a high medicinal value, so it has caused a lot of people to indiscriminately hunt and kill this species, resulting in the Chinese horseshoe crab is on the verge of extinction.

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In order to save horseshoe crabs from extinction, researchers are trying to farm them through artificial culture, but because of the difficulty of artificial culture, they can only be farmed temporarily, and after a year of farming, the horseshoe crabs have to be released into the sea. If artificial breeding, it will make the horseshoe crab symptoms of anemia, and eventually will also die due to anemia.

If you want to breed the horseshoe crabs artificially, you can't do it with the current technology, but researchers have been working on it, and we're sure that one day we'll be able to breed the horseshoe crabs artificially once the technology improves.

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The horseshoe crab, as a nationally protected species, is prohibited from being caught and killed, and will be held legally responsible if it is found. In addition to the horseshoe crab, there are also wild animals such as the pangolin and the harvestman's finch that are not to be eaten. These animals have medicinal value and have been slaughtered by humans and are on the verge of extinction, and are now endangered species.

The horseshoe crab is of great value to mankind and contributes highly to medicine. If there is no horseshoe crab, doctors can detect the bacteria in the blood during the blood test. If the horseshoe crab is extinct, doctors will not be able to find a replacement for the horseshoe crab for the time being, which will hinder the research and development of the medicine. Therefore, when you meet the horseshoe crab, it is best to release it, don't keep it for yourself to eat, and don't fish it out randomly, which is the protection of ecological environment and the protection of the endangered species.