Category Archives: Critters

The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab has been called a ‘living fossil’ because we find fossilized Horseshoe Crabs from over 200 million years ago. They are actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs. This arthropod is in a class by itself though – Merostomata – which means ‘legs attached to the mouth’. Trilobites that lived over 500 million years ago are actually a closer relative to this creature.