<\/p>\n
1.) They are not actually crabs, but faux-crustaceans,<\/p>\n
aquatic scorpions; arthropods with arachnid-kin.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2.) Triassic reverberations, they are their own ancestors,<\/p>\n
unchanged fossils, 230 million years in the making.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
3.) Called Limulus Polyphemus, after the Odyssean cyclops,<\/p>\n
but unborn embryos have nine eyes and a sense of irony.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
4.) Liminal in existence, they live in the gaps between land<\/p>\n
and sea: the brackish, the shallows, the world\u2019s edges.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
5.) Their distinctive carapace \u2013 armour, disguise, barnacled<\/p>\n
island \u2013 is regularly moulted, left behind like pottery.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
6.) Females are larger than males, often scarred from mating,<\/p>\n
when suitors cling to the rafts of their bodies for months.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
7.) Each spring, they are spades, digging nests in the same sand<\/p>\n
where they were spawned; 64,000 eggs shine like blue pearls.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
8.) Their blood is used in medical research. We claim catch and<\/p>\n
release, hands slick, harvesting the sea in search of immortality.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bex Hainsworth 1.) They are not actually crabs, but faux-crustaceans, aquatic scorpions; arthropods with arachnid-kin. 2.) Triassic reverberations, they are their own ancestors, unchanged fossils, 230 million years in the making. 3.) Called Limulus Polyphemus, after the Odyssean cyclops, but unborn embryos have nine eyes and a sense of irony. 4.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8190,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[889,6,1958,1945,201],"class_list":["post-8188","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-bex-hainsworth","tag-literary-feature","tag-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n