Why was a "living fossil" that has walked on Earth for 450 million years driven to extinction by humans? How crazy are humans to suck a mouthful of animal blood?
Horseshoe crabs – walking living fossils
Horseshoe crabs, belonging to marine arthropods, also known as the "living fossils" of the animal kingdom, have traveled 450 million years on Earth. In appearance, they resemble flat discs, covered with a hard shell and a slender tail behind them. Adult horseshoe crabs often travel in pairs, and females usually carry males on their backs.
Before dinosaurs came to power, horseshoe crabs left traces in the biosphere. However, over hundreds of millions of years, species have continued to evolve, but the horseshoe crab has maintained its original intention, and there has been almost no obvious change, which can be described as magical. In addition, horseshoe crabs are the only animals known to have blue blood.
Unfortunately, this interesting ancient species is now living in the wild in worrying conditions and even at risk of extinction.
During the warm spring, large flocks of horseshoe crab swim from the deep sea to the beach to lay their eggs. During breeding, the male crawls onto the back of the female and is responsible for granting sperm, and the female is responsible for digging the hole and burying the eggs in the pit.
It is reported that in order to ensure the number of offspring of the population, an adult female horseshoe crab can lay about 250 eggs at a time. Also because they breed too much, horseshoe crab eggs naturally become the staple food of the birds.
However, in addition to birds, there are actually humans who are eyeing the ancient group of horseshoe crabs, and it is precisely because of the arrival of humans that the ecological chain of this group has been completely broken.
Blue blood
In the 50s of the last century, medical personnel discovered that horseshoe crabs have a unique immune mechanism that allows their blood to coagulate quickly when the body is damaged to hinder bacterial invasion.
Based on this property, scientists began to study horseshoe crabs, and eventually extracted "horseshoe crab reagents" from horseshoe crab blood, which can quickly and accurately monitor human tissues for bacterial infections and can be used to monitor toxins. In addition, scientists also use horseshoe crab blood to study cancer cells.
This natural "LAL reagent", due to its small error, high sensitivity, and fast effect, was quickly recognized by the medical community. At present, the safety monitoring of many injection and implantable medical equipment has the credit of horseshoe crab, which also reflects the high medical value of horseshoe crab blood.
The high demand in the market and the uniqueness of horseshoe crab blood have skyrocketed in value, even becoming one of the most expensive liquids on the planet, reaching a price of $13,000 per liter. Every breeding season, U.S. pharmaceutical companies go to Atlantic beaches to capture tens of thousands of harmless horseshoe crabs to draw blood, squeeze their value and release them back into the ocean.
Previously, these companies stated that the mortality rate of horseshoe crabs in the process of blood collection is less than 3%, and reasonable blood collection methods will not affect the life of horseshoe crabs. At that time, the production line of horseshoe crabs was just emerging, and its population was still quite large, so everyone did not think so.
But over time, people discovered the problem. Since the start of these production lines, the number of horseshoe crabs spawning on the beach has plummeted year after year, and sometimes there is no trace of horseshoe crabs.
Until 2010, data showed that after horseshoe crabs were drawn from blood, their survival rate was less than 70%, far lower than the 97% claimed by pharmaceutical companies. In addition, some horseshoe crabs will also have obvious symptoms such as anemia after being collected blood multiple times.
In fact, with the help of humans, the population of horseshoe crabs is constantly depleting and even has a tendency to go extinct.
It is worth mentioning that in the 80s of the last century, our country also mastered the relevant technology and began to produce "LAL reagents". Due to the huge demand in the market, the number of horseshoe crabs has changed significantly in 40 years.
Before 1990, there were more than 650,000 pairs of horseshoe crabs along the coast of Guangxi; By 2010, it had shrunk to 280,000 pairs; In 2019, there are only 40,000 pairs left. In the same year, the Chinese horseshoe crab was listed as an endangered species.
Nowadays, the state has quite strict control over the production of horseshoe crab reagents, and it is necessary to ensure that the population of horseshoe crab remains stable. However, in the face of interests, there are also many companies that secretly buy Chinese horseshoe crabs, take their blood, sell their flesh, make chitin from shells, and spare no effort to squeeze every drop of value.
Of course, scientists are now trying to save this ancient group, but so far there is no obvious result.
On the one hand, although some drugs can replace the efficacy of LAL reagents, their safety is not guaranteed, and some effects are less than half of LAL reagents, so they cannot be completely banned for the time being.
On the other hand, horseshoe crabs go to hibernation in the deep sea every winter, and their maturity period is very long, so the technology and difficulty required to cultivate them in captivity are quite large. At present, horseshoe crabs can only be cultured in captivity, but because horseshoe crabs are difficult to track, it is difficult to determine how the situation inside the population of these released horseshoe crabs changes.
It is worth mentioning that horseshoe crabs are not suitable for consumption because they contain allergenic substances that may cause redness, itching, and even anaphylactic shock after consumption. At the same time, horseshoe crab blood contains heavy metal organocopper, which accumulates too much in the body and can lead to kidney failure and liver cirrhosis.
Overall, it took less than 100 years for humans to send an ancient population that lived for 450 million years to the brink of hell, so how many years will it take to save them? In this regard, friends can comment and leave a message below.