Do Horseshoe Crabs STING?!

- Brand. - What happen? - Are you ready to see an alien? (suspense music) - Like clockwork, it is a guarantee that twice a day the tide will rise and the tide will fall. As you recede, we have all learned that an incredible world of underwater marine animals becomes temporarily exposed, allowing any curious adventurer the opportunity to find and admire all kinds of strange creatures. In Harpswell, Maine, we encountered an animal we'd been hoping to feature in Beyond The Tide since the series launched. But before we get to that alien-looking aquatic beast, let's take a look at something that will give you goosebumps. - Friend, Marcos.

Come here, look at this. - What is it? - Dude, this grass is full of tiny fleas or something jumping around. Check it out. Woah, I'm standing... Oh, dear. Check it out. Hear. - Do you hear that? - That's like popcorn. - It sounds like rain. - I think they are sand fleas, let me catch one. - Does it bite? - Uhh, I think so. All fleas, as far as I know, bite. I can't catch one, they are too small and fast. God, jumping on me. Come here, look at this. Let me check this herb, it could be better.

Point your camera down here. This is exactly the same type of seaweed, dried seaweed. Oh, look, look at that. I just stepped on them and they are everywhere. Look, ready? One two. Oh my God! Check it out! - Put your hand there. - Put my hand in there? Alright, let me back up a little more. (insects jump quickly) - How so? - That feels very strange, but they're not biting me. They're just jumping on me. Here, let me explain this a little more. Check it out. - There are like millions of them. - Oh my God, that's crazy. (insects jump quickly) I have one.

Look, look, look. Do you see his little head poking out right there? I think it's a sand flea. That's creepy. Alright, note to self, don't lie on this beach. I'm going to scatter some of this dead algae and cover the town with sand fleas. I've never seen anything like it. Millions and millions of sand fleas. Alright, let's head down the coast and see what else we can find. - As we continued along the coast, we soon realized that it was unlike any low tide scenario we had explored before. I carefully examined possible hiding places where the animals might be waiting for the tide to return, but so far, apart from thousands of fleas, I have not seen a single living creature.

The sun was sinking in the sky, when suddenly our luck took the perfect turn and put us right in the middle of an animal we had always hoped to get close to for the cameras. - Oh, it's a turtle. Oh no, it's a

horseshoe

crab. - That? - Watch this. - Its alive? - Oh, he's alive, look at that. Wow, I thought it was a turtle. OMG I just saw the lump, I thought it was a shell. Alright, let's do this. I'm going to gently lift him out of the grass here. Let's see, oh, it's strong.

Look at that, wow. - What an alien. - Look at his tail. Here, back up a little so I don't sit in the water. Wow, look at that, oh my god. That's a

horseshoe

crab. What a strange looking creature. Now you might be thinking, Coyote, is that thing going to pinch and bite you like crazy? No, actually they just have a tiny little mouth right in the center. And they have no

sting

er, no fangs, no teeth. Look at that back tail there. Now they have gotten a bad reputation because of the queue. People think that's poisonous.

Actually, it is not. Ouch, ouch, ouch, but the little side spikes are definitely very, very prickly. Let me see if I can get it to fit in the palm of my hand. Oh, that feels very, very creepy. It is now called a horseshoe crab, but it is actually not related to

crabs

at all. It is most closely related to spiders and scorpions. This is a large arthropod. Now wait, it's pinching me a little. They have these frontal pedipalps that they use to gather food from the ocean basin. Wow, I'm so excited right now. Wait, I have to pull myself together because I didn't think we were going to encounter a horseshoe crab around here.

Now, if you look straight ahead, where it gets its name, horseshoe crab, let me hold it like this. It looks like a horseshoe, right? - Completely. - And if you look directly at the front of the face, do you see these little dots? Those are compound eyes. In reality, this animal has nine eyes in total. The two here, five light sensing eyes on top of their shell, and then on the bottom, two simple eyes that they actually use to sense their surroundings. And scientists believe that the eyes on the bottom are actually remains from when they were in the larval stage. - So wait, those are eyes on top of that? - Yes.

And it actually looks like a face, right? You see it? - I always thought that was just a helmet, like a protective shell. - Well, the upper part of this animal is called the shell, like many other species of arthropods. It is a very dense and very hard exoskeleton. They don't actually have an endoskeleton, you know, bones and cartilage like humans do. But deep down, look at that. It looks like a scorpion or a spider. - Oh, can I touch the top? - Yes, yes, yes, totally sure. - It's hard? Oh, wow. - Yes, exoskeleton. - It's actually like a turtle shell. - Yeah, well, I thought it was a turtle when we first arrived.

And look, you have some kind of barnacle growing on it. It is covered in some algae and algae. Now here's something you may not know. It's a very good thing. Let me turn it like this and hold it in the palm of my hand. That's me holding a living fossil. The ancestors of the horseshoe crab have been on the planet for more than 450 million years. And this species here is the Atlantic horseshoe crab. There are only four species of horseshoe crab in the world. This is the only one that can be found off the coast of the United States.

And this specifically, this design, the Atlantic horseshoe crab, hasn't changed in over 230 million years. That dates back to the Triassic Period. So this creature was crawling around the ocean basin during the time of the dinosaurs. How cool is that? Now they are getting a little bigger than this and I assume it is a female. Females are approximately 25% larger than males. Wow, it's almost impossible to hold on. Look at the bottom. - It looks like a

sting

er. - Yes, and that's why people are afraid of these things. They think they are going to get stung. Look at this, no.

This tail is actually only used as a rudder, even though it has all these spikes. It's very intimidating, but it can't hurt you at all. In fact, if a horseshoe crab turns on its back like that, see? Are you trying to straighten up? Actually it can't. And it is a big mistake to say that these arthropods are capable of turning around. In fact, there is a conservation effort that was launched in the '80s called Just Flip 'Em. And the concept of Just Flip 'Em is that if you're walking on the beach and you see a horseshoe crab that's flipped on its back like this, by a breaking wave, what you're supposed to do is just gently grab the shell and turn it face up.

Now, you don't want to pick it up by the tail because you can hurt the animal if you hold it like that. Look at that, Mark, it's coming right at you. - Do they ever come to land for anything or are they purely aquatic? - Well, between June and August they come very close to the coast to breathe. And the way they do it is the female curls up on the rocks and the male comes in and latches onto the female's back. Horseshoe

crabs

can breathe underwater or out of water because many times when they reproduce, they get trapped when the tide goes out too quickly and can breathe air.

Wow, I really wanted to feature a horseshoe crab in Beyond The Tide and it's like being in the right place at the right time that we came across one of these giants. Look at that thing. That's as big as my face. Wow, I have to be careful with that tail though. I don't want that to stab me in the eye. Well, how cool is this? Encountering one of the strangest creatures you will ever encounter in tide pools: the horseshoe crab. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave. Stay wild. See you on the next adventure. Alright, let's let her go back to the ocean. - Despite its angry appearance, intimidating spiky tail, and creepy set of legs and claws, the horseshoe crab is one of the friendliest marine animals you'll ever come across.

If you see one in the wild, simply admire it from a respectful distance. If you see one flipped on its back, don't be afraid to pick the animal up and gently return it to the water. If you thought coming face to face with the horseshoe crab was fascinating, be sure to come back and check out the time we encountered an octopus. And don't forget, subscribe so you can join me and the team on our next Beyond The Tide adventure. - And a really interesting characteristic of the octopus is its ability to camouflage itself with its surroundings.