What was that Darwin? Are You Talking About Me?
The horseshoe crab is a very unique character! It is a very old organism that has been around the since Ordovician period which was close to 500 million years ago! Many of the horseshoe crab's closest relatives such as the trilobites and the eurypterids have gone into extinction. So what makes this organism so special to have survived throughout millions of years without becoming extinct like the trilobites and other closely related arthropods during that time? Horseshoe crabs have been favored because they are known as ecological
generalists, meaning that they can live in a wide variety of environments without too much inconvenience. What makes this organism so successful is that they are not fixed to one specific habitat. Horseshoe crabs can endure variations in temperature and salinity.