Ancient Mariners RR16
$60.00 USD
Horseshoe crabs are living fossils. They’ve been around for 450 million years or so, unchanged for the most part. The ones pictured here are spawning, the larger female in front, male attached to her rear. The female digs into the shallow substrate until she’s about half buried in order to deposit eggs. The male kicks back and waits until she does so, then does his thing. After a brief pause, the female moves on to repeat the process, male in tow.
The species pictured here is Tachypleus tridentatus, or tri-spine horseshoe crabs, the largest of the four living species. All horseshoe crabs are considered endangered. Numbers have plummeted due to habitat loss and other environmental factors, as well as over-harvesting by the biomedical community. The blue blood of horseshoe crabs is used to test for bacterial endotoxins (bad stuff that hurts us). The tragedy is that artificial tests have been available since 2003, but the biomedical industry prefers to spike live animals on walls to drain their blood. (Can you sense how pissed off I am about this?)
Incidentally, though we call them crabs, these animals are not crabs. They are more closely related to the now-extinct sea scorpions, as well as arachnids. You can think of them as well-armored spiders of the sea (Not accurate, I know, but neither is calling them crabs!).
Each print is chopped with my logo. Sizes listed are the dimensions of the printed image in inches (see FAQ for equivalent sizes in centimeters). There is an additional white border around the image to allow for framing. A complete list of image and paper sizes can be found in the FAQ.
The species pictured here is Tachypleus tridentatus, or tri-spine horseshoe crabs, the largest of the four living species. All horseshoe crabs are considered endangered. Numbers have plummeted due to habitat loss and other environmental factors, as well as over-harvesting by the biomedical community. The blue blood of horseshoe crabs is used to test for bacterial endotoxins (bad stuff that hurts us). The tragedy is that artificial tests have been available since 2003, but the biomedical industry prefers to spike live animals on walls to drain their blood. (Can you sense how pissed off I am about this?)
Incidentally, though we call them crabs, these animals are not crabs. They are more closely related to the now-extinct sea scorpions, as well as arachnids. You can think of them as well-armored spiders of the sea (Not accurate, I know, but neither is calling them crabs!).
Each print is chopped with my logo. Sizes listed are the dimensions of the printed image in inches (see FAQ for equivalent sizes in centimeters). There is an additional white border around the image to allow for framing. A complete list of image and paper sizes can be found in the FAQ.
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