Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family (Nephropidae, sometimes also Homaridae) of large marine crustaceans. They are important as an animal, a business and a food.

Biology

Clawed lobsters should not be confused with spiny lobsters, which have no claws (chelae), and are not closely related. The closest relatives of clawed lobsters are the reef lobster Enoplometopus and the three families of freshwater crayfish.

Related Topics:
Spiny lobster - Reef lobster - Crayfish

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Smaller varieties are sometimes called "lobsterettes". Lobsters are invertebrates, and have a tough exoskeleton, which protects them. Like all arthropods, lobsters must molt in order to grow, leaving them vulnerable during this time. Lobsters are considered a food delicacy around the world. In Europe, they are extremely expensive; in some parts of North America, much less so.

Related Topics:
Invertebrate - Exoskeleton - Arthropod - Molt - Delicacy - Europe - North America

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Lobsters live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.

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Lobsters are primarily scavengers, feeding on mollusks and decaying animal matter, but will also eat live fish, dig for clams, and feed on algae and eel-grass. An average adult lobster is about nine inches (230 mm) long and weighs 1.5 to 2 pounds (700 to 900 g). Lobsters grow throughout their lives, though, and are long-lived. They can thus reach impressive sizes. According to the Guinness World Records, the largest lobster was caught in Nova Scotia, Canada and weighed 20.14 kg (44.4 lb).

Related Topics:
Scavengers - Mollusk - Fish - Clam - Algae - Eel-grass - Inch - Mm - Pound - G - Guinness World Records - Nova Scotia - Canada - Kg

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The environmental conditions of the lobsters can vary from ocean to ocean, but the lobster's temperature environment does not fluctuate much since their home is large mass of water, the ocean.

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Like all arthropods, lobsters are largely bilaterally symmetrical; clawed lobsters often possess unequal, specialized claws, like the stone crab. The anatomy of the lobster includes the cephalothorax which is the head fused with the thorax, both of which are covered by the carapace, and the abdomen. The lobster's head consists of antennae, antennules, mandibles, the first and second maxillae, and the first, second, and third maxillipeds. Because a lobster lives in a murky environment at the bottom of the ocean, its vision is poor and it mostly uses its antennae as sensors. The abdomen of the lobster includes swimmerets and its tail is composed of uropods and the telson.

Related Topics:
Stone crab - Cephalothorax - Thorax - Carapace - Antennae - Mandible - Maxilla - Maxilliped - Swimmerets - Uropod - Telson

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