Talk:Horseshoe crab/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Costal vs. coastal

is 'costal' a typo, or does it mean 'relating to ribs'?Toyokuni3 (talk) 16:27, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Talk page disappeared

What happened to this talk page? There used to be a lot more here, but its disappeared: not in the history either, and there is no link to an archive section. 184.77.159.253 (talk) 20:25, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

Some of the previous talk appears to be at Talk:Atlantic horseshoe crab. Keith D (talk) 21:05, 16 April 2011 (UTC)

How big are they? This should be right up front. Pb8bije6a7b6a3w (talk) 19:19, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Blood harvest death rate?

the article says this is relatively low, but googling pictures shows clearly that they are killed... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.246.96.101 (talk) 13:56, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Page name

@Rhinopias:, @Dr.K.: and @Jcc: "Horseshoe crab" is the common name for all the Xiphosura order, not only for this family. I changed the name just for that, and I think it should be as I did. Super Ψ Dro 06:51, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

@Super Dromaeosaurus: I understand the technical point you make. (Although it's interesting you did not rename Xiphosura to Horseshoe crab after moving the latter away from Limulidae, and instead redirected Horseshoe crab to Xiphosura.) However, I think it's important that the vernacular name horseshoe crab points to the article readers would be looking to find. It's unlikely when a reader searches for "horseshoe crab" that they're looking for the extinct animals we could refer to as horseshoe crabs. The lead of Xiphosura even says "sometimes called horseshoe crabs", but I don't think it can be argued that limulids are referred to as anything other than horseshoe crabs.
I think it could be easily mentioned in the lead of Horseshoe crab, where it currently says "order Xiphosura", that extinct members of the order may also be referred to as horseshoe crabs? Rhinopias (talk) 16:57, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

not crustaceans?

Why aren't they? An explanation would be useful. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 20:51, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

But didn't ya know that horseshoe crabs are actually arachnids? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.238.133.210 (talk) 15:17, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

A good video on Youtube that shows hundreds of them onshore, and upclose held by an expert on these big scary-looking creatures --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA-NoH_G330 (and yes @ 0:54 he says they are *distantly* related to scorpions and spiders) 142.229.83.207 (talk) 23:35, 2 February 2012 (UTC)


Turns out they are close relatives of other arachnids rather than being a distant releation https://phys.org/news/2019-03-horseshoe-crabs-relatives-spiders-scorpions.html#nRlv — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.239.164.217 (talk) 08:28, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

New research shows that they are bona fide arachnids, a sister group to Ricinulei. Jesús A Ballesteros et al. A Critical Appraisal of the Placement of Xiphosura (Chelicerata) with Account of Known Sources of Phylogenetic Error, Systematic Biology (2019). DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syz011 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:569:7CB6:E800:79CD:3FCC:6A0D:FBEE (talk) 18:45, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Yes, that is an interesting paper (and it is already mentioned at Xiphosura and in a few other places). However, this is a very new finding, and we will have to wait what the scientific community makes of it before we start adjusting any classifications; for now the mainstream view is still the one we should rely on. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 19:33, 10 March 2019 (UTC)

Use as human food

Apparently horseshoe crabs are eaten by humans, as this photo taken in Thailand (from the article Sriracha sauce) shows. I assume that the one in the photo is not just being used as a bowl, but that the food piled inside contains some part of the animal itself. However, this article says nothing about their use as human food except that their eggs are eaten in some parts of Asia.

This article should include information about horseshoe crabs as human food—what part of the animal is eaten, how it is prepared, what it tastes like, etc.

— 8.47.96.147 (talk) 14:48, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Conservation Status?

is there a reason the endangerment bar isn't on this page? This seems like a species that badly needs it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:B247:DF00:74DE:3EC5:B939:87BE (talk) 23:19, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

It's not a single species, but several different genera with multiple species, which have different assessments; hence no blanket statement here. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 14:11, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Soft sandy and muddy bottoms

Is this a typo or does it mean soft sandy bottoms — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pafrisore (talk • contribs) 20:19, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Soft, sandy and muddy bottoms. Am adding that comma.--Quisqualis (talk) 00:26, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Timeline change

6 days ago, the timeline in the sidebar was changed to say horseshoe crabs have existed since the Triassic period. Before that it said they've existed since the Ordovician period, and the main article still does. Is this an error? 2605:A000:1223:C05E:2DAE:7D5A:D999:9505 (talk) 19:16, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

user:Lab06 N has been warned against such edits in the past. Recommend reverting and messaging on their Talk page.--Quisqualis (talk) 00:36, 27 May 2020 (UTC)


It seems to me that there is still an issue with the period of existence of horseshoe crabs in the article. In the introduction is says that they have existed since 244 million years ago, and this affirmation has a citation. In the Taxonomy section, it says that the earliest fossil found is from roughly 450 million years ago (no citation). These two affirmations are contradictory. The second one seems more correct; I would suggest that the first affirmation be revised and that the second affirmation needs a reference to go along with it. Hydroeditor (talk) 14:54, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

Where would the horseshoe crabs live? (Picture)

Can someone add a picture of where the horseshoe crabs live or anything? MasterWolf0928-Æthelwulf (talk) 15:17, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

Blood harvesting

Very informative article - https://www.npr.org/2023/06/10/1180761446/coastal-biomedical-labs-are-bleeding-more-horseshoe-crabs-with-little-accountabi

-- John Broughton (♫♫) 20:58, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

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