What is horseshoe crab (hòu)? Many people subconsciously understand this word as a turtle when they see it. In fact, this is understandable, because it does look like a turtle.
The body of the horseshoe crab is divided into three parts in total, with a broad head and chest in front. There are two large eyes on the head, a pair of compound eyes on both sides, followed by a branched abdomen and a long tail. You can think of it as a living bicycle car mat , but there is a small tail behind the bicycle mat.
Don’t look at it, it is a living fossil that has survived for 400 million years. From 400 million years to this day, they have witnessed the birth of fish, the destruction of dinosaurs and the rise of human beings. However, they have not changed much by themselves, and their basic morphology and cellular form are still similar to those before.
and their blood is different from most animals nowadays.
Most of the blood of ordinary animals is red. This is mainly because most animals contain hemoglobin, which mainly transports protein , which contains iron. When the iron element reacts with oxygen in the blood, it will appear red.
horseshoe crab blood is very different from other animals. The blood of horseshoe crab has no iron element but contains a large amount of copper element. The copper element combines with the oxygen in the blood and forms blue. There are some other animals in nature that also have blue blood, such as octopus, shrimp and crab.
高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高清高� Scientists have discovered that the blue blood of horseshoe crabs is very different from other animals. The blood of horseshoe crab contains amoeba cells. When the cell encounters bacteria, it will coagulate. The condensed amoeba cells will wrap the bacteria and trap the cells to death.
This characteristic of horseshoe crab gives it a natural advantage when facing bacteria. But you can't eat it all over the world with one move. If large-scale bacteria enter the horseshoe crab's body, then the horseshoe crab will also be depressed on the spot. Because of too many bacteria, the amoebacter cells in the horseshoe crab blood will continue to coagulate, which will eventually lead to blood blockage and death from ischemia.
According to this characteristic, as long as the horseshoe crab blood is made into a reagent as a raw material, it can be easily detected whether the sample contains bacteria. This makes him a hot commodity in the medical field. For example, vaccine needs to undergo horseshoepius reagent testing before it is launched, and only vaccines that pass the test can be launched. In addition, horseshoe crab blood is also widely used in the field of food safety.
For people, this is a great thing, but for horseshoe crabs, it is the beginning of a nightmare.
After people discovered the detection characteristics of horseshoe crabs, they began to fish for blood extraction on a large scale. Due to uncontrolled fishing, the number of horseshoe horses is decreasing. People grabbed the horseshoe crab and tied it to the machine and inserted it into its heart with a steel needle to collect its blood. Facing a powerful machine, its clamp limbs appear pale and weak.
This is very cruel for horseshoe crabs. They can only watch their blood flow away weakly, slowly waiting for the arrival of death. Under uncontrolled fishing, horseshoe crab production has been decreasing and has been classified as a protected animal in many countries.
Some companies have proposed measures to protect horseshoe crabs, arrested them, extracted 30% of their blood each time, and then put them back in the water to rest. This seems to be a win-win situation, but it is not.
Some horseshoe crabs died directly during blood drawing, and the dead horseshoe crabs accounted for about 10%-15%. Most of the horseshoe crabs put back into the water are sluggish and have more than half of the fertility reduction. There are still about 20% of horseshoe crabs that will die soon after returning to the waters. This act of blood draw and then release has a devastating blow to the increase in the number of horseshoe crabs.
And, horseshoe crabs are monogamous creatures, and they collectively lay eggs on the beach during the breeding season, which exacerbates the survival crisis. About 10% of horseshoe crabs will overturn when they get ashore under the push of the waves, and once the body turns over, it will be difficult to recover. They basically die from sunlight, and horseshoe crabs that die from overturning each year account for 10% of the total.
A horseshoe crab has to grow at least 15 years from childhood to maturity. During this period, male horseshoe crabs have to lose their shells 18 times, while females need to lose their shells 19 times.
has difficulty reproduction, and with the increasing number of people's fishing, the price of horseshoe crabs has also risen. Especially in 2020 when the epidemic broke out, the blood price of a liter of horseshoe crab reached a terrifying 100,000 yuan.
Faced with such a high price, many people ignored the government ban and caught a large number of horseshoe crabs, which further reduced the number of horseshoe crabs. Under the multiple effects of
, the number of horseshoe crabs has become extremely rare. It was seen everywhere on the beach before, and residents on the beach used it as food. It is said that the taste is not good, and eating too much will make it easier to get heavy metal poisoning . Now, it is basically impossible to see a horseshoe crab quietly staying in the wild waters.
becomes a horseshoe horseshoe on the verge of animals, which is worth our deep thought. It is really chilling that horseshoe crabs solved the safety of our reagents but were treated like this. Just judge the value of an animal, it should not be useful to us, and we should not cruelly hunt and draw blood for the sake of our interests and then let it go.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-