Have you ever heard of horseshoe crabs referred to as living fossils? That’s because they’ve been around, in some form or another, for over 400 million years. Early on in their evolutionary history, during the Carboniferous period, they could be found in the Chicago area.

Horseshoe crabs features some of these creatures hanging around Thalia Hall, a historic building in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Thalia is built of Carboniferous-age limestone, which would have been formed around 330 million years ago when horseshoe crabs roamed the area.

Scratchboard and India ink, 10”x10”