The Morphology and Gut Content Study of the Horseshoe Crabs in Selected Coastal Water of Sarawak

This study was carried out to determine and document the morphological characteristics and also to identify gut content of the horseshoe crabs in selected area of Sarawak. The sampling was done at selected coastal water of Sarawak which are Maludam, Sibu Laut, and Kampung Pasir Putih. The location...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nurul Atikah, Binti Mat Jusoh
Format: Final Year Project Report / IMRAD
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8284/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/8284/1/Nurul.pdf
Description
Summary:This study was carried out to determine and document the morphological characteristics and also to identify gut content of the horseshoe crabs in selected area of Sarawak. The sampling was done at selected coastal water of Sarawak which are Maludam, Sibu Laut, and Kampung Pasir Putih. The location of each station was recorded by GPS which Maludam (01° 39’ 50.7’’N, 111°01’ 15.5’’E), Sibu Laut (01° 41’ 18.2’’N, 110°12’08.9’’E) and Kampung Pasir Putih (01° 39’ 49.1’’N, 110°28’ 29.8’’E).For the morphological study, the characteristics of the sample (i.e body segmented, total length, carapace width, and telson length) were measured, recorded and described. Based on characteristics analysed, the sample have been identified as T. gigas and C. rotundicauda. The total numbers of the sample that was used for this study is 119 individuals for morphological study and 22 sample for gut content study of the horseshoe crab. Each species can be differentiated as each species have a different morphological characteristics. The horseshoe crabs is an omnivorous animals which feed on algae, polychaete, plant materials and molluscs, however it most preferred mollusc such as bivalve and gastropod compared to others.