In addition to all the pieces of driftwood found on the beaches of Jekyll Island in Georgia, there were also some interesting crabs washed ashore. At least they are interesting to me since we don’t have these particular species of crab on the west coast.
The first is an Atlantic Blue Crab which is native to the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to Argentina and around the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Please click the image to view a larger version.
Here is a close-up of the crab’s claw:
The second is an Atlantic Horseshoe Crab. These are indeed strange looking creatures since their entire body is protected by a hard shell and they have long tails that they can use to flip themselves over if they are upside down. It also has 9 eyes! It has 2 compound eyes and 5 simple eyes on the outside of the shell and 2 simple eyes on the underside. In this image it appears as though it is eating some sort of plant. I didn’t stage this, I found it this way.
This is what the underside of the crab looks like (this is actually a different crab than the image above, I didn’t flip him over):
Gorgeous colors. I remember getting a shell of the horseshoe crab from my grandparents when they would make their fall migration to FL and come back to NJ in the spring.
Wow – those iridescent colours are amazing in the first two.
Hi Andy, thanks for your comments. I was surprised that they didn’t loose their colours once they are dead. Well I guess it’s not like they are cooked or anything 😉 not sure why I expected that. The colours were very bright.
These are so cool Anne – definitely a new series here.
Thanks Russ, yes I’ll have to start a “dead things found on the beach” series 🙂
Cools shots Anne. I particularly like the blue crab.
Thanks Len, that blue crab really had some bright colours.
I have never seen anything like this before, what a great series!
Thanks Toad, glad you liked it.
The blue crab shots are gorgeous!
When I lived in NY, I would go to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on a particular night every year when the horseshoe crabs would come ashore to lay eggs, something they’ve been doing for millenia. It was a wondrous sight. (I also went to the refuge regularly for birding.)
Hi Mim. If I ever go to New York I will have to go and visit the refuge you mention, it sounds great. I would love to see the crabs lay their eggs. I also really want to come back to the east coast to see the turtle eggs hatch, that would be quite a sight. So many new things only one ocean away. Thanks for your comments.
These are nicely capture, Anne! Good detail and color. 🙂
Thanks Jimi! It’s too bad I don’t have an image of a live crab to show you, but I took what I could get!