space fisherman

Chapter 384 Limulus

But in the process of shelling, its death rate is also very high, which has a feeling of dying.

The eggs of the horseshoe crab shed their skin four times in the egg membrane before hatching.

The newly hatched first instar juveniles are very similar to adult horseshoe crabs in terms of their morphology, but they do not have the characteristic tail sword.

The body length of the second instar pups is about 10mm, and the tail sword that was absent in the first instar pups also grows obviously during this period.

They have a weird swim and can swim on their backs.

But generally like to drill into the mud and crawl in the mud.

Horseshoe crabs don’t grow fast, they need to shed their shells 16 times (the shelling is called an age, but not once a year, the horseshoe crabs have more shells when they are young) and it takes 9 to 12 years to reach maturity .

Ye Yuan could tell at a glance that the two horseshoe crabs brought by Liu Hongguo were already mature, which is very rare in China.

Horseshoe crabs were not such a rare creature in the past. Until the end of the 20th century, horseshoe crabs, which were previously unknown, became famous far and wide.

The reason why it is suddenly sought after by people is that the compound eyes and blood of horseshoe crabs have made great contributions to human beings.

The compound eyes of horseshoe crab are composed of 800-1000 ommatidia, and each ommatidium is an independent visual unit.

However, in addition to visual cells, small eyes also have one or two special eccentric cells.

Eccentric cells between adjacent ommatidia also communicate with lateral branches (lateral nerves).

All information from the outside world needs to be transmitted to the brain through eccentric cells.

Hartland, a famous physiologist, proved it with microelectrodes and other electrophysiological experiments.

When the illuminated area expands from one ommatidium to a nearby ommatidium.The intensity of the electrical pulses sent by the anterior oculi not only did not increase but decreased.

That is to say, when an ommatidium is excited by light, the ommatidia around it are inhibited instead.

It turns out that the inhibition is the result of the function of the lateral nerve of the eccentric cells of the small eye, which is called "side inhibition".

Studies have pointed out that thanks to lateral inhibition, horseshoe crabs can extract and process the received visual information.

Enhance the edge contrast of the viewed image, omit the details and highlight the outline.The subjective sharpness is thereby improved.

This ensures that horseshoe crabs can see objects clearly on the sea floor.Prey accurately or avoid enemies effectively.

For this discovery, Hartland received the 1967 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.

According to the side inhibition principle.Engineers use it in the transmission of TV images to obtain clear images.

But that's not the main reason horseshoe crabs are called endangered.

The reason why he is rare is because of his blood.

The horseshoe crab's body is extremely special, especially the blue blood in its body. Of all the biological clocks that Blue Star has discovered so far, only the horseshoe crab's blood is blue.

In 1955, scientists discovered that the blue blood of Limulus contains a special cell that can detect bacteria and endotoxins, so scientists quickly extracted the blood and developed the "Limulus Reagent".

In medicine, this reagent can quickly detect bacteria that infect human flesh. Simply put, as long as you have been injected with seedlings and needles, you will have a contribution to the horseshoe crab.

As a horseshoe crab that has made great contributions to mankind, his fate is not very good.

Their blood is drained, their meat is sold to restaurants, and even their shells are sold to processing plants.

It wasn't until the last [-] years that people suddenly discovered that the number of horseshoe crabs was decreasing sharply. At this time, people realized that horseshoe crabs have become precarious and need to be protected as soon as possible.

Seeing the careful look of the man, Ye Yuan knew that he must know the value of these two horseshoe crabs.

But what he didn't understand was, why did the man take this thing to himself?

"You saved my child, I know you have money, but money can't buy this thing."

The man said sincerely.

Ye Yuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he really didn't expect this guy to give him a pair of protected animals.

Seeing Ye Yuan's expression, the man knew what was going on in his heart. The man left without saying a word, without looking back. Although he left, he kept this pair of horseshoe crabs.

Ye Yuan understands this man's mood, he intends to use this pair of horseshoe crabs to thank himself, even though it is a nationally protected animal.

But in the coastal area, it is no secret that some people dare to charge high prices for these.

It's like wild large yellow croakers. Although they are also protected animals, aren't they still sold in many high-end restaurants?
Seeing the back of the man leaving, Ye Yuan didn't stop him.

One is that he knows that the man really wants to thank himself, and he can completely understand this heart.

Second, he didn't want the pair of horseshoe crabs to be taken away by those criminals.

If the man does not give this pair of horseshoe crabs to himself, he will probably sell them at a high price.

Since I have received such a heavy gift from others, I should do something to help.

Thinking of this, he contacted the hospital. Ever since Ye Yuan showed his astonishing suturing speed, the director of the county hospital has called him frequently these days.

He always wanted Ye Yuan to be his advisor, but how could Ye Yuan agree to such a thing.

When Ye Yuan took the initiative to call the dean today, he was very excited:
"Xiaoye, have you figured it out?"

"President Wang, don't talk about going to your hospital anymore. I don't even have a medical license."

Before Ye Yuan could finish speaking, Dean Wang directly interrupted him:

"If you are willing to come, I will help you with this."

"Don't persuade me, really, I want to ask about your child today."

Ye Yuan didn't want to say more about this matter, and directly stated the purpose of this call.

"The child is recovering very well. Our hospital attaches great importance to it. Now he lives in a single room, which is considered the best ward in our hospital."

As soon as Dean Wang heard about the child, he had no interest. However, the county attaches great importance to this child, so he still understands the situation better.

"I think the child's family is very difficult. If the medical expenses are not enough, you can tell me that the child can be regarded as saved by me..."

Dean Wang understood the meaning of Ye Yuan's words, then smiled and said:

"You don't have to worry about this. The medical expenses are free. This is something we decided at a meeting. We are not as snobbish as you think."

"Okay then, call if you need something."

After finishing speaking, Ye Yuan didn't give Dean Wang a chance to speak, and hung up the phone directly.

But he knew that the hospital would not be so kind, if it wasn't for Zhang Jingkuan's face, let alone free of charge, even a discount would be impossible.

Since the man's family did not have the big problem of medical expenses, Ye Yuan didn't think about how to repay the horseshoe crab for the time being, but he didn't take it too seriously.

After all, the child was saved by himself, even if he took the horseshoe crab and did nothing, it would not be too much.

He glanced at the pair of horseshoe crabs lying quietly on the bamboo.

The first thing that came to mind was to send it to Professor Su and the others.

(End of this chapter)