"'cause they're ugly!" - Part II

          Well after Brockmann’s “beach incident,” she reminded me that “Every single person has benefited from horseshoe crabs and that is primarily because of the medical tests.  Everything that goes into the human body is tested to make sure that it is not contaminated with bacteria.  The LAL test has become the standard for all injectables.  Hip replacements, heart valves, and anything else that goes into the human body has been tested against horseshoe crab blood.”
            “From a personal point of view,” Brockmann emphasized, “the answer to your question would be that they’re just such fascinating creatures and so unusual. I always think to myself, when I’ve been in the field for a little while, it’s like studying a Martian. They don’t share a common ancestor with any other group for four-hundred and fifty million years.”  For Brockmann there’s nothing else like them on this planet.  “And yet, all of us studying their biochemistry, or their blood, or their visual system are finding fundamental principles that apply to all kinds of species on the planet.”  We all use lateral inhibition in helping us identify visual patterns – a critical principle first discovered in studies of horseshoe crabs.  “So, although [crabs] are Martians in the sense that they don’t share a common ancestor with anybody else, all life has these basic [and surprising] similarities. My personal view is that they’re so absolutely fascinating and they get even more intriguing as you learn more about them.”
            “I think,” Brockmann stated, “that it’s very important to emphasize that this funny looking creature that you don’t think is worth much; this stupid, "ugly" animal is actually important to the ecosystem, to science and to me.”  As a scientist, Brockmann is concerned about the unbelievable ignorance surrounding these animals.  She worries that there are so many individuals who hold the belief that these animals are of no consequence.  “This animal is of consequence and so are a lot of other animals.”
            My conversations with Carl Shuster yielded similar information and similar passion.  Shuster told me that there’s a lot about this animal that interfaces with our activities, particularly human health.  He made the point that the crab’s heart has been well studied and there is a positive relationship between activation of the heart by nerve impulses and intramuscular activity.  Some of these processes also come into play in human anatomy as well.  “Much of what we know in the visual sciences has been aided by what has been studied in the horseshoe crab optical system.”
            With fire in his eyes he said, “If you want to know something about the world around you and what influences it and you want to pick an animal that’s had greater influence than any other on human health and human life, the horseshoe crab maybe is it.”