They shouldn’t have evolved blood that’s useful to humans, really pretty short sighted of them
Is there any consensus as to the internal organs/stuff which maybe doesn’t fossilize well? Like, did they just evolve a bitchin’ chassis but they’re constantly tinkering with the internal bits?
In truth, the modern horsehoe crab is different than its ancestors, just not as much as usually occurs in several hundred million years. So Frank was really more like, “Eh, maybe a little, but not much.”
Fossilisation has a bit more to do with deposition conditions than the creature itself. It’s why we know next to nothing about jungle dinosaurs and ones around mountains. Most of our knowledge comes from marine and wetland dinos.
They would most likely look the same but there are still evolutionary changes deeper in the DNA that aren’t visible like metabolic and digestive functions. A modern horseshoe crab would not be able to reproduce with one from a 100 million years ago despite looking virtually identical.
“Nature abhors a vacuum, and anything that is not a crab.”
Or a crocodile.
Crabadile - the ultimate lifeform.
They are the tastiest life form.
They are also the ultimate in that field.
You may not like it, but this is what peak evolution looks like.
Triops: tiny freshwater horseshoe crab looking guys. You can buy their eggs for cheap online and raise and breed your own. Easier and cheaper than SeaMonkeys.
Nature did make it the sexiest creature
Do not the crab
I will the crab
Please do not the crab
I already the crab.
The crab it is
Survival is a war and they have won
cuts them in half for their yummy blood
Sort of a testament (ha) of the stability of it’s niche.
that pun was divine.
Nature’s Frying Pan
“How’s work’n the Ordovician era, Frankiiieee?” “‘sarright” “Poor Frankie…”
makes toxic-bacteria-detecting blood like a boss
I strive to have that level of self acceptance.