Facts About Lobster

Lobsters are invertebrates with a hard protective exoskeleton, found in oceans around the world. They live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms, from the shoreline to beyond the edge of continental shelf. Lobsters have 10 walking legs and generally live alone, in crevices or in burrows under the rocks. There are two kinds of lobsters in this world - the ‘true’ lobster, also known as American lobsters, and the ‘spiny lobster’. The true lobster has claws on the first four legs, which a spiny lobster lacks. The spiny lobsters have a pair of horns above their eyes, a feature that is missing in the true lobsters. Spiny lobsters also have two large, cream-colored spots on the top of the second segment of their tail. This article will provide you with more such interesting and amazing facts on lobsters. Read on and increase your knowledge.

Facts About Lobsters

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropod

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Decapods

Family: Nephropidae

Subfamily: Nephropinae Dana

Length: 25-50 centimeters

Weight: 1 lb - 4 lb

Life span: 15 - 50 yrs

Diet: Live prey, such as fish, crabs, sea stars, mollusks, worms and other plant life

Habitat: All the oceans

Gestation Period: Up to 1 year

Number of Offspring: Lays 5000-100,000 eggs at a time

Interesting & Amazing Information On Lobsters

Lobsters grow by molting or in simple words, by shedding their shells. They form a new, thin shell underneath the old one, before shedding it. While molting, they secrete enzymes that soften their shell and connective joints. The lobsters then struggle out of their shell, a process that takes them 15 minutes. Each time they molt, they increase their size by about 20%.
They can be found in many colors, including blue-green, blue, red, yellow, red-orange and white. Some of the lobsters come in two colors as well, half of their shell is in one color and the other half consists of another shade.
Lobsters eat voraciously after molting. They eat their old shell as well, which helps them to regain the lost calcium. This also speeds up the hardening of the new shell. Lobsters hide themselves in mud or under a rock for 6-8 weeks after molting, the time in which their shell hardens.
They use complicated signals, like dolphins, to establish social relationships. They even walk hand in hand at times, the old leading the young.
Female lobsters mate right after molting, when they are in soft shell state. They can carry live sperms for up to 2 yrs, until they decide to fertilize their eggs. The newly laid eggs are the size of a pinhead and are attached to the swimmerets under their mother’s tail for almost a year.
Lobsters chew food in their stomach, which is close to their mouth, between three grinding surfaces that look like molar teeth, called the “gastric mill”.
They hunt for their food usually at night. They are not cannibalistic, except when held in crowded conditions.
To escape their enemies, lobsters swim backwards, by flipping their tail.
Lobsters’ body has 19 parts, each of which is covered by a section of the shell. The shell is soft and thin where the parts join, making it possible for them to bend their body and move around.
They have compound eyes, with hundreds of lenses joined together at the end of a pair of organ called stalk. The four antennae are used to smell food and chemicals in water. The tiny sensory hair along the legs is used to taste food.
Lobsters have a sophisticated nervous system, allowing them to sense actions that will cause them harm and pain. They do not have an automatic nervous system that puts them into a state of shock, when harmed. For this reason, they feel the pain until their nervous system is completely destroyed.

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