{"id":30201,"date":"2016-09-15T12:46:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T19:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-horseshoe-crabs-wash-ashore-in-japan"},"modified":"2017-06-04T09:40:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T16:40:01","slug":"scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-horseshoe-crabs-wash-ashore-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-horseshoe-crabs-wash-ashore-in-japan","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Baffled as Hundreds of Dead Horseshoe Crabs Wash Ashore in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-horseshoe-crabs-wash-ashore-in-japan.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Horseshoe crabs <a href=\"http:\/\/io9.gizmodo.com\/12-of-the-most-astounding-living-fossils-known-to-sci-1506539384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are known as \u201cliving fossils\u201d<\/a> and for good reason. The blue-blooded, side-walking arthropods have been around for 200 million years, surviving the last five mass extinctions. But something appears to be wrong as hundreds of dead horseshoe crabs have recently washed ashore in southern Japan, leaving scientists confounded.<\/p>\n<p>One population of horseshoe crabs, or \u201cwarrior helmet crabs\u201d as they\u2019re known in Japan, make an annual trek to their spawning grounds around the tidal flats of Kita-Kyushu. Some inevitably die in the process, but the number of dead this year is uncharacteristically high, prompting concern.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/living-fossil-crabs-mysteriously-dying-japan-072317974.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> in AFP, a local conservation group had been spotting upwards of five to 10 remains every day during the egg-laying period, prompting a more thorough investigation. By the time the conservationists were finished counting they tallied up about 500 dead horseshoe crabs. That\u2019s about eight times higher than normal, and about 20 percent of the local population. It takes a long time for young horseshoe crabs to mature, so this is a major setback for <a href=\"http:\/\/io9.gizmodo.com\/12-of-the-most-astounding-living-fossils-known-to-sci-1506539384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a species already in trouble<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-horseshoe-crabs-1786662373?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=Gizmodo_facebook\">http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/scientists-baffled-as-hundreds-of-dead-ho...o_facebook<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Horseshoe crabs are known as \u201cliving fossils\u201d and for good reason. The blue-blooded, side-walking arthropods have been around for 200 million years, surviving the last five mass extinctions. But something appears to be wrong as hundreds of dead horseshoe crabs have recently washed ashore in southern Japan, leaving scientists confounded. One population of horseshoe crabs, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-existential-risks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60386,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30201\/revisions\/60386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}