All printables
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab — printable fact sheet
Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.
Creature Atlas
Animal Fact Sheet
Name: ____________________
Date: ____________________
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
Limulus polyphemus
The horseshoe crab is not a crab. It is closer to spiders and scorpions than to anything crustacean, and its body plan has run essentially unchanged for something like four hundred and fifty million years — it was old before the dinosaurs. Its blood is blue, because it carries o…
Did you know?
- Atlantic horseshoe crab blood is so valuable to the medical industry that a quart can be worth thousands of dollars.
- It is not a crab — it is closer to spiders and scorpions, and its body plan is around 450 million years old. Its blood is blue because it uses copper, not iron, to carry oxygen. That blood clots on contact with bacterial toxin, and is used to test that nearly every vaccine and injectable drug on Earth is uncontaminated. It has ten eyes, and migrating shorebirds time their arrival to feast on its eggs.
What I learned
Draw the atlantic horseshoe crab
© Creature Atlas · www.creatureatlas.com · Free for classroom & personal use
Want the whole set?
Get printable fact-sheet packs, coloring pages, and classroom worksheet bundles for dozens of animals — ready to download and print.
Browse printable packsGet a free printable each week
Join the newsletter for a new Creature of the Week + printables.