Woah. Are horseshoe crabs like other crustaceans in that they eat pretty much anything including/mostly detritus?
If thats the case, than how would it be beneficial to have blood that coagulates so easily?
Wouldn't every meal lead to a crab version of a stroke?
Horseshoe crabs are not crusteceans, they are early chelicerates.
They have an open circulatory system, where the blood (heamolymph) freely spills out of the arteries into surrounding tissues, so a small clot probably wouldn't cause issues. Think of it like a cyst, sometimes if an infection can't be removed by the immune system, your body will just enclose it in a capsule, so it can't spread.
Ahhh that makes sense. That's a pretty cool defense system
Probably so it can detect it as quickly as possible for elimination.
Woah. Are horseshoe crabs like other crustaceans in that they eat pretty much anything including/mostly detritus?
If thats the case, than how would it be beneficial to have blood that coagulates so easily?
Wouldn't every meal lead to a crab version of a stroke?
Horseshoe crabs are not crusteceans, they are early chelicerates.
They have an open circulatory system, where the blood (heamolymph) freely spills out of the arteries into surrounding tissues, so a small clot probably wouldn't cause issues. Think of it like a cyst, sometimes if an infection can't be removed by the immune system, your body will just enclose it in a capsule, so it can't spread.
Ahhh that makes sense. That's a pretty cool defense system
Probably so it can detect it as quickly as possible for elimination.