Atlantic horseshoe crab
Amazing fact
Atlantic horseshoe crabs can swim on their backs, using their gills like paddles.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Atlantic horseshoe crabs can swim on their backs, using their gills like paddles.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Atlantic horseshoe crab
- Scientific name
- Limulus polyphemus
- Japanese name
- アメリカカブトガニ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Family
- Limulidae
- Genus
- Limulus
It lives along the coasts of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico.
How the Atlantic horseshoe crab lives
At night, they eat animals such as small molluscs, as well as algae. They pick up food with appendages called chelicerae. They chew food at bristly bases and move it to the mouth. They usually move by walking along the bottom of shallow water.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- Northwestern Atlantic coast, including the Gulf of Mexico
Where the Atlantic horseshoe crab has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- アメリカカブトガニ
- 简体中文
- 美洲鲎
- 繁體中文
- 美洲鱟
- 한국어
- 대서양투구게
- Español
- Cangrejo herradura
- Français
- Limule atlantique
- Português (Brasil)
- Límulo
- Italiano
- Limulo
- العربية
- سرطان حدوة الحصان الأمريكي
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Belangkas Atlantik
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — アメリカカブトガニChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Limulus polyphemusChecked: 2026-11-06
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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