looking for a good (Arthropod) or (Chelicerata) BOOK?

[tarantula3898]

I get into constant arguments about whether or not a horse shoe crab is a crustacean. I have found many sites that talk about this and how they are more like spiders than crustaceans, but this never seems to convince anyone.

Now I don't know a whole lot about the issue myself, and I am not looking to prove that a horse shoe crab is an arachnid, because that is not what my evidence supports. But the whole Chelicerata classification issue has got me all bug eyed.


can anyone help.

 

[Tarantula_Hawk]

i can give u a short classification that might clear things up for u :

SubPhylum: Chelicerata
--Class: Merostomata
---SubClass: Xiphosurida (ur horse shoe crabs)
--Class: Pycnogonida
--Class: Arachnida
----ORder: Aranea, Scorpionida, Opiliones, Solifugae, Acari etc..
SubPhylum: Crustacea (and all its classes)

So actually, horse shoe crabs are neither arachnids nor crustaceans. But if one had to identify the closer relative between the two one would say arachnids since they belong to the same subphylum. Hope to have cleared things up

 

[tarantula3898]

yeah, that is what most websites say. but the problem is that i want to know more in depth about all the different classifications and the subclassifications from a reliable source.

if you search the web enough you will find that some people think that horse shoe crabs are in the arachnids classifications, some think that it is the one you mentioned and i personally believe which is right outside the arachnid classification, and some still believe that they are crustaceans.

i had a person with an associates in biology argue with me about horseshoe crabs being a crustacean.

thanks for reaffirming my belief though, its nice to know not everyone is nincompoop these days.

 

[Tarantula_Hawk]

np .... anyways i study natural sciences at university and had to give this exam in and we have some reliable books and that's what they all say ..