Asian horseshoe crab
- noun
- Indian
:
cangrejo herradura asiático
- Researchers are studying the population decline of the Asian horseshoe crab due to habitat loss.
Examples
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The Asian horseshoe crab is commonly found in shallow waters along the coast of China and Japan.
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Children were fascinated by the ancient-looking Asian horseshoe crab they discovered on the beach.
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Look at that Asian horseshoe crab!
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The Asian horseshoe crab is a fascinating creature.
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The Asian horseshoe crab is commonly found in shallow waters along the coast of China and Japan.
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Researchers are studying the population decline of the Asian horseshoe crab due to habitat loss.
-
Children were fascinated by the ancient-looking Asian horseshoe crab they discovered on the beach.
Synonyms
2
7.8
A large sea animal with a hard shell shaped like a horseshoe and a long pointed tail
A group of horseshoe crab species that live in Asia
A large sea animal with a hard horseshoe-shaped shell and a long pointed tail
A large sea animal like a crab with a hard domed shell and pointed tail
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward noun compound: 'horseshoe crab' describes a crab with a horseshoe-shaped shell and 'Asian' specifies the geographic region. A B1 learner who knows 'Asian', 'horseshoe' and 'crab' can compose these meanings to arrive at the intended species reference, so the expression is transparently compositional and cross-linguistically parsable.
Etymology
Asian horseshoe crab gets its name from its look: the hard shell is shaped like a horseshoe and it has a long tail like a crab, while 'Asian' tells where it lives. People called it a 'horseshoe crab' because of this strange, old shape even though it is 'not a true crab', so today the name means the species of these hard-shelled animals found along eastern Asia.