Limulus....

..the lowly horse shoe crab... Yep, an arthropod, but not a crab. Actually said to belong to the spider/scorpion critter group. But still with us, little changed, and amazingly having evolved almost half a billion years BEFORE even the dinosaurs. Read up on the remarkable reproductive styles of these wonders, which populate the Eastern North American coastal regions, and apparently parts of Asia, where it's headed to a list of declining wild populations. But the saga continues. The copper based clear "Blood" of the larger up to 5 Kg females, has important medical uses. And while not having a highly specific innate and adaptive immune system, like our Bravo, and me, (but not present in many liberals), apparently, the blood like substance helps fight the thick soup of a large group of endotoxin elaborating bacteria living all around, and inside them. Probably does much more, but the active substance, LAL (Limulus Ameobocytic Lysate), has been harvested and purified for years, and is essential in various fields of microbiological medicine. Seems, among other things, to coagulate these endotoxins. In the animal, such clotting actions make these dangerous substances targets for the many scavenger amoeba-like circulating cells therein, rendering them yummy, but harmless. A synthetic blend is available, but is costly and apparently only in limited production. Seems that caring ( North American) harvesters withdraw only a quarter of the fluid in each animal, allowing them to survive on return to the bays. Not so with the Asians. But then, kitty cats and puppy dogs are on the menus there as well. Possible declines of 5-10% in populations in parts of Asia. Sure, it's dangerous to read too much into such elaborate evolved processes. But I'd bet on erring on the side of not wiping these miracles out. Not like big Pharma is investing a bunch in newer antibiotics, in the face of scary resistances. But on a personal note, in my youth, our family used to clam and Quahog, on the Masachusetts coast. The scrumptious tiny neck clams squirt through the sand when we walked over them, enabling profitable quick digging. But the quahogs live deeper, so you have to feel for them with the feet, over time learning to differentiate between bivalve and stone. But the tails of these horse shoe crabs always reminded me those on sting rays, and are used often to reright themselves after a role in the surf. Took me a long time to get over the fear. Today, as with ground fish, these fruits of the sea are more rare, for many reasons. But on the coast of Maine, fresh upland river outlets are still lousy with clean mussels. Helpful, harmless wonders of ocean ecology and biology, all.