Lobster: An Anatomy Lesson

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 Lobster is used interchangeable with the terms ‘American lobster’ and ‘northern lobster’. These terms are used to refer to any lobsters living in the shallow , cold waters of rocky areas or other places in which lobsters can hide from predator creatures, as they are nocturnal and quite solitary creatures themselves.

American lobsters can be found as far south as North Carolina, but are famously thick in more northern regions, such as the Canadian Maritimes, Maine, Massachusetts, Newfoundland and Labrador. In these colder waters lobster reach huge sizes and are prized for their heartiness and sheer size.

Commonly, northern lobsters range in size from eight inches to twenty-five inches, and just over a pound to ten pounds in weight. These are therefore the heaviest marine crustaceans in the world. The natural enemy of Maine lobsters is the cod fish, as well as flounder and haddock. Over fishing of cod in the Northeastern U.S. has lead to an overpopulation of lobster during the 20th century.

For the American lobster, it’s long antennae seem to be more important than the lobsters’ eyes. Lobsters use their antennae to feel the area around them. Shorter antennules are used for smelling. Lobsters can locate the direction of a given smell through he olfactory organs found in the antennules. The antennules are also good for sensing water speed and direction.

The eyes of Maine lobsters are unique in that they do not use lenses to focus light, but rather narrow and tapered channels that are lined with a crystalline reflective marterial toward retinal cells. This design is similar to the ones found in x-ray systems for refracting light, as in the Lobster-ISS x-ray telescope.

Lobsters use their mouths to eat, but also to dig and burrow into sand. If a lobster has lost all its legs and claws due to fighting, it will use its mouth to pull itself around. Lobsters use their mouths to take in food, but digestion and chewing take place in the stomach with the aid of the gastric mill, a three teeth-like grinder assembly found in the stomach.

Over time most lobsters will begin to favor one claw, which will grow very large. Claws are filled with slow-reacting muscle fiber. While this muscle fiber is slower than the locomotive leg muscle fiber, it is much slower to wear out or weaken. This improves prolonged pincher capability for fights.

Lobsters have two urinary bladders that are located on their heads where it is convenient for them to let out plumes of urine to mark their territory or attract a potential mate in the area. Lobster eggs are green and about 1 mm in size. These cling to a female’s tail underside for about one month and have a survival rate of only about .1%.

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