The horseshoe crab is not a true crab. It is a large sea animal more closely related to spiders and scorpions. Its name comes from the fact that from the top its shell looks like a horse’s hoof, and from the bottom it looks like a horseshoe. Once it reaches adulthood, its shell is discarded every year and a new one grows in its place. A large shell can be more than a foot across. The crab’s abdomen is covered by this shell and is attached to it by a hinge. The crab also has a long, pointed tail about six inches long. This tail is mostly for navigation, but it also helps the crab to turn over if it gets turned upside down on the ocean floor.
Horseshoe crabs have six pairs of legs. The first pair has pincers and is used mostly for eating, and the next five are used for walking. They also have a total of 10 eyes, including two obvious ones on the shell.
Horseshoe crabs leave their winter homes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in May and June, migrating north to beaches on the Atlantic coast of North America. They crawl up on the beaches during high tides at full moon and new moon to scoop shallow, basin-like holes in the sand or mud. The females lay up to 100,000 eggs, 4,000 at a time, in these holes, where they are fertilized by males. She covers them over before returning to the sea. In about two weeks, these eggs hatch out in great quantities. Hordes of birds have an instinct given by the Creator to know each year just when the migrating crabs have laid their eggs, and the birds are on hand to enjoy a big feast.
Though you may never have heard of the horseshoe crab, you most likely have been helped by them. This is because they have something in their blood (called LAL) that is extremely sensitive to the presence of endotoxins, a dangerous bacterial substance that can cause death to humans. Labs use the LAL from the horseshoe crab to test things like needles, vaccines, and medical implants for endotoxins. People have started thinking that draining the horseshoes of so much blood might be causing them to die even if they are released into the ocean alive. In some areas they have become less plentiful. A synthetic version of LAL has been developed, which it is hoped will replace needing to bleed the horseshoe crabs.
Though we haven’t perhaps known it, we have profited a great deal from the horseshoe crab’s special blood. We who are saved have profited far more by the blood of the Lord Jesus. As our opening verse says, His precious blood was shed to save our eternal souls from hell. May we praise Him today for all He suffered to make us His own!
Did You Know?
Horseshoe crabs have a total of 10 eyes.
Messages of God’s Love 11/9/2025