Older than dinosaurs and harder than crocodiles. This is the only species on Earth that has lived for more than 400 million years and still retains its original appearance - horseshoe crab [hòu], commonly known as horseshoe crab. This marine life with blue blood is actually not a

is older than dinosaurs and harder than crocodiles. This is the only species on earth that has lived for more than 400 million years and still retains its original appearance - horseshoe crab [hòu], which is commonly known as horseshoe crab . This marine organism with blue blood is actually not a crab, but an extinct trilobite "relative".

On the occasion of the 8th Shanghai International Nature Conservation Week, Professor Shan Jincheng, co-chair of the horseshoe crab expert group of the World Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), officially announced that the team of Hu Menghong, the team of Shanghai Ocean University, has become a member of the Asia-Pacific Horseshoe crab Observation Station Network Program, and highly affirmed the team's series of work in artificial breeding and species protection of Chinese horseshoe crab .

Liberation Daily·Shangguan News reporter learned that the waters near Yangtze River Delta were once the hometown of Chinese horseshoe horses in China. However, with global climate change and the marine environment continues to deteriorate, more and more Chinese horseshoe horses cannot return to their former northernmost hometown. How to escort the "blue living fossil" journey back to the north?

The little horseshoe crab that has been beaten with fluorescent markers

[Only 4 species exist in the world, Chinese horseshoe crabs are considered endangered]

As the best survivor of the four mass extinctions in history, the horseshoe crabs survived the "darkest period" of biological extinction on earth and has super strong survival ability. During its heyday, there were hundreds of species of horseshoe horses. With the intensification of human activities, habitat destruction and overfishing, there are currently only four species of horseshoe horses in the world, namely, American horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe horseshoe

Chinese horseshoe crabs are native to the coastal areas of China, Indonesia , Japan, Malaysia , Philippines and Vietnam. They are distributed in the vast sea areas south of my country's Yangtze River Estuary , including Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other coastal areas. With habitat destruction and overfishing, the population of Chinese horseshoe crabs has begun to decrease sharply. The IUCN of the World Union for Conservation of Nature and the "Hyperus Red List of Chinese Species " designated Chinese horseshoe crabs as endangered; in February 2021, Chinese horseshoe crabs were listed as national second-class protected wildlife.

Researchers conducted a hemocyanin purification experiment for horsesoft horses

[Artificial breeding large-scale nucleus horses, used for wild proliferation and release ]

In recent years, the Hu Menghong team has achieved a series of results in the nutritional needs and physical recovery of horses horses. Nutritional supplements and injection injections that can quickly restore horses’ immune function have been screened, providing technical support for artificial breeding of horses horses and physical recovery of horses horses.

Chinese horseshoe crabs wild in Beihai

Since 2008, Hu Menghong's team has done a lot of research on Chinese horseshoe crab population resource survey, nutrition , physiology , immunology, etc., and has accumulated first-hand information for horseshoe crab population protection. In 2016, he was invited by Professor Mark Botton, Chairman of the IUCN International Horseshoe crab resource assessment group, and officially became a member of the Asian expert group of the World Union for Conservation of Nature. The working group aims to reconstruct and restore the sea horse horses population so that this biological resource can continue to contribute to nature and society.

In 2017, Hu Menghong's team began to cooperate with Beihai Xinglong Bioproducts Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in my country's horseshoe crab reagent, to reach a consensus on the protection of horseshoe crab resource. In response to the rapid decline in the wild population of Chinese horseshoe crabs, Hu Menghong proposed that artificial breeding of large-scale young horseshoe crabs can be used to proliferate and release in the wild, and at the same time, restore the immune function of horseshoe crabs and then release it back to the original sea area.

Hemocyanin purification experiment

[Improve the formula and optimize the model, "blue blood residents" and "full blood resurrection"]

With the support of the local marine economic innovation and development demonstration project "Collabialis horseshoe reagent and China's horseshoe ecological utilization industry chain collaborative innovation", the team and enterprises actively carry out in-depth cooperation in industry, academia and research, and have made great efforts for the conservation and sustainable use of Chinese horseshoe horseshoe. They have broken through the technical difficulties of simulating tidal ovulation, and the relevant results "Methods to Accelerate the Sexual Maturation of Chinese Horseshoe Horseshoe Horseshoe Horseshoe Horseshoe and the Breeding System to Apply This Method" have won the national invention patent .

As a member of the "Aquatic Animal Nutrition Control and Efficient Green Breeding" innovation team of Shanghai high-level local universities led by Professor Cheng Yongxu of Haida University, Hu Menghong's team combined green aquaculture technology with modern cell biology technology. By adjusting the breeding environment, evaluating nutritional needs, designing feed formulas of different age groups to ensure the healthy growth of the young horses and promote the rapid recovery of the immune function of the young horses and to provide this kind of ancient "blue blood residents" with a "nutritional meal".

Feed products of scalypseus horses

As the member meeting of the Asia-Pacific Horses Exploration Station Network Plan, Professor Guan Jieyao, co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Horses Pacific Horses Exploration Working Group of the IUCN Horses Exploration Expert Group and Director of the Key Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity Conservation in Beibu Gulf, Guangxi commented: "Hu Menghong's team has let Chinese horses ate a 'love nutritious meal', providing new ideas for the maintenance of horses raptor resources."

Horse as horses 1 spirulina feed

Hu Menghong said: "Our main research direction in the future is to improve the existing Chinese horses raptor bait formula, optimize the existing breeding model, and use efficient green aquaculture technology as an important tool for biodiversity protection and ecological civilization construction, and promote industrial cooperation and species protection."

 Image source: Interviewed universities Title picture description: Horseshoe crab and the "skin" it shed 

Source: Author: Xu Ruizhe Cai Xia