Very Ancient Blue Blood

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Horseshoe crabs are sometimes called “living fossils” because they have been around in some form for more than 450 million years. In this time, the Earth has gone through multiple major ice ages, a Great Dying, the formation and subsequent breaking up of Pangaea, and an asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs and most of life on Earth yet again.



Every year horseshoe crabs are harvested for their ancient blue blood. One quart of horseshoe-crab blood is reportedly worth as much as $15,000. Horseshoe-crab blood is exquisitely sensitive to toxins from bacteria. It is used by the biomedical community to test for contamination during the manufacture of anything that might go inside the human body: every shot, every IV drip, and every implanted medical device.

I read an article this morning in which scientist have developed a synthetic substitute for horseshoe crab blood. The Last Days of the Blue-Blood Harvest

I'd run across reference to the uses of horseshoe crab blood in a few articles over the year. Glad to hear that a substitute is in the works. Both pragmatically and ethically, it seems a little dubious to rely so heavily on a wild animal whose population is declining. No-one seems to be farming them- I wonder if anyone's ever tried? I didn't realise that they were usually released alive afterwards, though the loss of blood is presumably not great for the survivors. A bit of a horror movie scenario from their point of view!