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Talk on horseshoe crabs
As part of the 2023 Underwater in Salem Sound lecture series, Salem Sound Associate Director Alison Frye will discuss horseshoe crabs in the program room at Abbot Public Library and online via Zoom. Register to attend in person or on Zoom.
Horseshoe crabs evolved almost 450 million years ago and are considered the “living fossils” of our time, surviving ice ages, asteroids and five mass extinctions.
Today, they continue to serve an important role, both ecologically and economically, as their eggs provide sustenance for endangered shorebirds, and their blue blood is used to advance biomedical research, according to Frye.
Though horseshoe crabs have endured these catastrophic events throughout earth’s history, their population is now in decline. Frye will discuss the importance of this elusive, prehistoric creature and how we can help it survive the next mass extinction.