Lobster is an invertebrate that belongs to the crustacean family. There are 49 lobster species that can be found in the oceans all over the world. Lobsters also inhabit fresh and brackish water. Lobsters are ten-legged creatures, just like shrimps and crabs, their closest relatives.
Interesting Facts about Lobsters
1. Depending on the species, lobsters vary in size from 0.8 to 3.25 feet in length. Most species are somewhere in between.
2. Lobsters can be divided in two groups: clawed and spiny. Clawed lobsters have claws and they inhabit cold waters. Spiny lobsters have long antennas instead of claws and they could be found in the tropical (warm) waters.
3. They might look simple, but they have brain and nervous system, heart, stomach and intestines just like people.
4. Lobsters mainly eat meat, such as fish, mollusks, worms and crustaceans. They also consume algae and other type of sea vegetation.
5. Lobsters are usually caught in an underwater trap called a “lobster pot,” baited with dead fish.
6. Most people think that lobsters are red in colour. They are actually brown or olive-green, with reddish shades. They turn red after cooking, because heat destroys all pigments except red.
7. Lobsters are cannibals, they eat each other.
8. During a mating period, female becomes vulnerable because she throws away her shell. After a week of mating, new shell will develop and female will have large number of eggs deposited inside her body.
9. Lobsters eat voraciously after molting, and will often consume their own recently emptied shells. Eating the old shell replenishes lost calcium and hastens the hardening of the new shell.
10. They can live to be 100 years old.