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The horseshoe crab might seem alien, but it probably shouldn't. This animal has been here for somewhere around 450 million years, predating dinosaurs. "This is a very old species," says Anthony Dellinger, president and lead scientist for North Carolina-based Kepley BioSystems, "with a very specialized immune system." Paradoxically, that natural immunity contributes to the risk that the species now faces. For the past few decades, the blue blood that protects horseshoe crabs from infection has become a key ingredient in a substance that ensures that biomedical devices, cosmetics, and certain drugs and vaccines are free from potentially deadly bacteria. The increased demand for crab blood for these medical purposes has led to dangerously aggressive harvesting. The resulting decline in the horseshoe crab population—the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List classifies the crab as "vulnerable"—has had ripple effects through a coastal ecosystem stretching the entire Atlantic coast. A small project on Jekyll has big ambitions: to reverse the fortunes of the horseshoe crab.