''Limulus'' is a genus of

horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are Chelicerata, chelicerates, most closely rela ...

, with one extant species, the

Atlantic horseshoe crab The Atlantic horseshoe crab (''Limulus polyphemus''), also known as the American horseshoe crab, is a species of marine biology, marine and Brackish water, brackish chelicerate arthropod. Despite their name, horseshoe crabs are more closely relat ...

(''Limulus polyphemus''). One fossil species is currently assigned to the genus though several other species have been named, which have since been assigned to other genera. Currently valid species include: *''

Limulus polyphemus The Atlantic horseshoe crab (''Limulus polyphemus''), also known as the American horseshoe crab, is a species of marine and brackish chelicerate arthropod. Despite their name, horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpi ...

'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, t ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoological ...

) *'' Limulus coffini''

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species). It is one of the modern descendan ...

Reeside & Harris, 1952-

Pierre Shale The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from Pembina Valley in Canada to New Mexico. The Pierre Shale was described by Meek and Hayden in 1862 in ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, Late Cretaceous (

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interv ...

) Doubtful species include:Dunlop, J. A., Penney, D. & Jekel, D. 2013. A summary list of fossil spiders and their relatives. In Platnick, N. I. (ed.) ''The world spider catalog, version 14.0'' American Museum of Natural History, online at http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/index.html * '' Limulus nathorsti''

Jackson, 1906-

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

, Sweden Tentative species: *''" Limulus" decheni''

Zinken, 1862-

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

(considered by some intermediate between ''Limulus'' and ''

Tachypleus ''Tachypleus'' is a genus of south, southeast and east Asian horseshoe crabs in the family Limulidae. Species There are two extant (living) species: * '' Tachypleus gigas'' (Müller, 1785) * '' Tachypleus tridentatus'' ( Leach, 1819) And two ...

'')

References

Xiphosura Prehistoric chelicerates Extant Triassic first appearances {{paleo-arthropod-stub