Fossil horseshoe crabs with injuries and deformities

[Halichoeres]

Cool review of xiphosurans with malformations and injuries, including the common fossil species Euproops and Mesolimulus:



Open acccess: https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2224:abnormal-xiphosurids&catid=327:2018&Itemid=754

[Ravonium]

Thanks for sharing. Those are some nice deformed specimens of Limulus the researchers for this paper have got right there    The fork-tail ones look a bit like giant Triops, and the short-tailed one looks almost like a modern trilobite.

[Gwangi]

I got to watch the yearly spawning of the Atlantic horseshoe crabs in Delaware bay a few weeks ago. One of the coolest things I've seen in my entire life. When we got there is was empty beaches with one crab here or there but as the tide came in so did the crabs until there were thousands. I should upload some pictures. To think, they've been spawning on beaches this way for the last 400 million years!

[Mini Minmi]

OH wow that must've been quite the experience!

While they creep me out a little (I'm not sure why, they look like giant bugs maybe) I love horseshoe crabs because they're just so alien looking and yet so perfect for their environment. They are fascinating animals.