Horseshoe Crab How Many Years Has Horseshoe Crab Existed On Earth

We all have hemoglobin in our blood, so we all have red blood, and I believe that a lot of people think that the blood of all the beings on the earth should be red, however, today we are going to talk about the blue blood of a kind of creatures --- horseshoe crab (hòu), a species of horseshoe crab. -Horseshoe crab (hòu). Horseshoe crabs first appeared in the Devonian period, has lived on the earth for 450 million years, is deservedly "living fossil".

And most importantly, the blood of the horseshoe crab is very special and has unique medical value (it can be used to detect bacteria), which has saved a lot of lives, but now the horseshoe crab is in a precarious situation because it has been taken as a gourmet food on the table, and has become an endangered species after thousands of catches. The species is now endangered after being fished by the thousands.

Why is horseshoe crab blood blue? What determines the color of blood

Why is the blood of horseshoe crabs blue when the blood of most common animals is red? As we all know, all living creatures survive on earth rely on oxygen, and the iron-based hemoglobin in the blood formally transports oxygen.

But like horseshoe crabs, this ancient lower organisms, "transportation" of oxygen is not by the iron-based hemoglobin, but in their blood, copper-containing protein conjugate is blue, which is the reason why their blood shows blue, we are also therefore into this "transportation" protein for hemocyanin. " protein as hemocyanin.

Since the color of horseshoe crab's blood protein is so special, the horseshoe crab's blood protein must also have special function, and it is true that horseshoe crab's blood has unique antibacterial ability. Horseshoe crabs like to survive in the seaside, the seaside is very dirty, basically in every gram of seabed sediment contains nearly 1 billion bacteria, this number is extremely horrible for human beings, but the horseshoe crabs think that this is exactly no one disturbed the paradise.

The horseshoe crab's blood cells are not divided into divisions, but only a kind of morphogenetic cell. Don't look at the surface, but it is this primitive and simple cell that has a special function like its color. In such relatively open blood cavities, microorganisms such as bacteria are allowed to come into direct contact with the blood, and as long as they have passed through the hard horseshoe crab shell, they can swim around the horseshoe crab's body with impunity.

But horseshoe crabs have powerful specialized cells, amoeba-like cells, that can fight these bacteria. The cells are mobile, and although they don't have the ability to engulf bacteria like white blood cells do, when they come into contact with bacteria, they immediately shrink and rupture, releasing chemicals that can coagulate the blood and the local area, effectively encircling the bacteria and blocking the transmission of damage.