Blog assignment: News topic

This week’s assigned blog topic was to find a news article and write about it. I wrote about an article (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207135801.htm) about fossils of a horseshoe crab. I chose this because they are interesting as I used to see them on a daily basis living near the water in Palm Harbor. In the article they show how the horseshoe crabs can be dated back to around a half million years ago. A team of Canadian scientists found the fossil during looking at a site where an old tropical sea used to be. In the picture of the fossil at the link it is remarkable how much the old fossil looks like the horseshoe crab of today. The article also talks about how the horseshoe crabs are losing their grounds due to development. Another serious thing dealing with horseshoe crabs that they forgot was gigging. People on boats use poles to stab them and then sell them for bait for nautiluses and other sea creatures. Another thing that harms horseshoe crabs is when they mate on the beach and kids flip them over. Anyways back to the article, the article talks about how horseshoe crabs surviving this long. It is amazing they have survived this long with the simple design that they have. It also tells that living horseshoe crabs are studied for medical research. If people want a reason to help keep these guys around that is a pretty good one.