Jagged/ABC Wednedsday

J is for Jagged

These are jagged granite cliffs of Coron Island, one of the 80-plus islands in the Calamianes in northern Palawan.  The craggy cliffs have been slowly shaped by the elements over millions of years, they jut out of sea like some mythical creatures.  The caves in northern Palawan are also home to balinsasayaw (Collocalia whiteheadi), a species of swift endemic to the Philippines that produces a prized saliva---bird's nest, a delicacy for Chinese diners.  Price of bird's nest is no joke---a jaw-dropping P80,000 (roughly US$2,000) a kilo.  But the jolting fact is, the bird is endangered...so please stop eating bird's nest soup even when you have the money to pay for it.

The mysterious Coron Island is an ancestral domain to the indigenous Tagbanua.  The island and the rest of the Calamianes attract thousands of nature lovers every year. There are  lakes, coral gardens, rocky coves, cave systems and sugar-white sandy beaches.  For the adventurous, there are about 12 dive sites around this area, mainly Japanese shipwrecks sunk in 1944 by US Navy action.   It was a joy visiting this slice of paradise.

Busuanga Island is the jump-off point to anywhere in the Calamianes; Coron Island is just a 20-minute boat ride across the bay.

Linking to ABC Wednesday

X/ABC Wednesday

X is for Xiphosuran 

Xiphosuran is an anthropod of the order Xiphosura which includes horseshoe crab and other extinct forms.  I found this strange-looking creature at the shores of Snake Island in Palawan---it was the first time that I have seen a horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicaudia), I didn't think it was a living creature.  I noticed the metallic look of its shell, thought it was a helmet of some kind.  When it moved, I thought it was sea turtle but when I looked closely, the shell resembles that of a crab.  Nobody can tell me at the time what this was called.  When I came home, I showed this image to my brother and he said it's a mangrove horseshoe crab.

Despite its name, horseshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to crabs.  They live primarily in and around shallow ocean waters and occasionally come  on shore for mating.  Horseshoe crabs have no hemoglobin in their blood, they have hemocyanin to carry oxygen.  Because of the copper present in hemocyanin, their blood is blue.  Their blue blood is widely used in biomedical sciences for the development of drugs for diseases like mental exhaustion and gastroenteritis.

Considered by biologists as living fossils because they have remained practically unchanged in terms of shape and size for millions of years.  Fossils of horseshoe crab have been dated to roughly 450 million years ago.

Linking to ABC Wednesday