Not Really Crabs


 22 June 2021

CRABS & SUCH

3. NOT REALLY CRABS

 


"Horseshoe Crab" is a 8 x 10 inch acrylic on canvasboard depicting the so-called living fossil Limulus polyphemus, which we can see on the shores of the brackish reaches of the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, and elsewhere on the Atlantic Coast. Not a crab, and more closely related to spiders, it's a fascinating creature that's been around for millennia, swimming upside down, sporting seven eyes, and with blue blood rather than red. The oxygen transport in the horseshoe's blood is the copper metalloprotein  hemocyanin rather then the iron metalloprotein hemoglobin that most of the animal world depends on.  Think iron rust red, copper tarnish blue. Read up on him at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_crab#Harvest_for_blood.

Then there are the seriously dead and extinct trilobites, one of which I painted in "Before Adam."  They are also not closely related to crabs, but have a similar shape.


I dug up trilobite fossils in the excavated embankments of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in the 1950s. Sadly, I lost them long ago.  The inspiration for the painting came from the opening in this found frame.  I signed the painting at the top with a monogram mimicing the tribolite's shape. If you're curious, look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilobite.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 8, 2021 at 7:00 AM

    How big were the trilobite fossils?
    What did mom think of you bringing them home?
    John

    ReplyDelete

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