When you think of lobsters, what comes to mind is an image of a red crustacean served on a large plate at a fancy restaurant.
However, lobsters are not only culinary delights; they are complex marine crustaceans that range across several genera and myriads of species. They are found in large numbers nearly everywhere in all of the world’s oceans, sometimes even in freshwater.
Lobsters are technically biologically immortal since their cells do not show any signs of aging. What does eventually kill them is damage to their shell in the form of rot, injury, or infection. This brings their lifespan to about 50 years on average.
Belonging to phylum Arthropoda, lobsters have a hard exoskeleton that covers a softer flesh underneath and has ten legs for locomotion. Their lifespan is often cut short by fisherman, and the species is rapidly going down in population in various parts of the world due to overfishing.
NOTE: If you’ve ever wondered if lobsters can be pets, check out my article here, explaining all about what types of lobsters would make good pets!
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They are usually found roaming on sea beds, but some species prefer to live in shallow waters. In total, there are about 80-90 species of lobsters contained in more than 15 different genera.
Let us consider the differences and similarities between species while learning more about their lives, the cuisines they are used in, their cultural value and much more.
Description
Lobsters have elongated, rigid, and segmented bodies with five pairs of legs. Their tails are muscular, flipper-like, and used for swimming along with the ten legs. Lobsters can even swim in reverse gear using a combination of the flexure of their tails and abdomens.
True lobsters (those belonging to genus Homaridae) have claws at the end of the first three pairs of legs; the first claws are usually bigger in size. A distinctly visible snout covers their entire head and midsection.
The lobster diet contains a red pigment found in some plants that protects them from stress. This color is absorbed over time and travels to a deeper layer of skin. This is why lobsters are usually mottled brown in color, sometimes orange or blue.
When they are cooked in a pot of boiling hot water, however, the red pigment is released in full swing as blue and orange proteins break down. This gives lobsters their shining red color when cooked.
Click here to learn about a similar crustacean from the same family as lobster…the crab.
Source: Smithsonian
Habitat
To some, the habitat of a lobster may seem to be on a large platter decorated around the edges with lemon wedges. Live lobsters in nature, however, are found living under crevices, cracks, and caves on rocky, muddy, or sandy bottoms. They can be found everywhere from beaches to the continental shelf.
Source: The American Lobster
Taxonomy
A complex and detailed system of classification, taxonomy deals with arranging all living beings into a comprehensive system based on their traits and physical attributes.
Lobsters are categorized as follows:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda (ten legs)
Family: Nephropidae
There are several genera within the Nephropidae family whose members can be classified as lobsters.
Source: Maine Lobstermen’s
Life and Ecology
After being carried by their mothers for a year, baby lobsters are released as larvae into the water where they go through several stages of development before they settle on the bottom of the ocean floor. This is where lobsters spend most of their lives, and there is plenty of food to go around there too.
Lobsters live in burrows they dig in rocks or among seagrasses. In order to grow, lobsters have to shed their shells multiple times in a lifetime as they go through growth spurts.
Source: National Geographic
History
When North America became populated by European settlers, lobsters were so plentiful that they used to wash up in bulks on the shore. In those times, lobster was not considered a chic meal; in fact, they had a bad reputation as the poor man’s food. Their abundance was such that they were even used as plant fertilizers.
With the advent of better transportation technology at the end of the 19th century, lobsters were brought to distant urban areas where they started gaining popularity as a delicacy.
Source: History Stories
In Arts and Culture
One of the reasons lobsters are famous in popular culture is because of the belief that they mate with only one other during their lifetime. They are extensively used in art and film as symbols for the same. This, however, is a myth.
The surrealist Salvador Dali, for example, created a sculpture named ‘Lobster Telephone’ with the crustacean replacing the handset and positioned in the cradle.
Another surrealist auteur Yorgos Lanthimos tells the story of a dystopian society in his film The Lobster, in which single people check in to a facility to find love within 45 days or they must be transformed into any animal they choose to live out their days.
Culinary Uses
From China to Europe to the US, lobsters are enjoyed and even celebrated, as food. It is one of the world’s most prized delicacies, meant for the crème de la crème. As covered in its history, it was not always this way. Today, however, it is the most luxurious food you can have with only a few other cuisines exceeding its fame.
The expensive, upper-class food is cooked into different delicious cuisines around the world. It is used in soups, rolls, bisque and many other kinds of dishes.
It is usually steamed or boiled alive after freezing so as to minimize pain, even though lobsters have unsophisticated neural networks that are not able to process complex sensory information.
Source: Lobster Gram
Kinds of Lobster
Clawed Lobsters
The clawed lobster is the most common kind and it is the one that comes to mind first. They have three pairs of claws out of their total five pairs of limbs. These lobsters are especially important for the fishing industry since they are the most widely consumed ones, and they are the ones you expect to be served on a platter when you order in a fancy restaurant.
This type includes European and American lobsters.
Source: Wilderness Classrooms
Reef Lobsters
Reef lobsters belong to the genus Enoplometopus, which has 11 species in all. While reef lobsters are also a clawed variety, they are different from clawed lobsters; instead of having claws on three limbs, these lobsters only have one large set of claws on the first one. They are strikingly colored, with some even sporting purple or lavender markings.
Source: Reeflex
Spiny Lobsters
This broad category is reserved for all lobsters that lack claws on the front of their bodies, and several species come under this genre. These crustaceans are easily recognizable because of their very thick and oversized antennae; this is where the word ‘spiny’ comes from.
Source: WWF
These crustaceans are nocturnal in nature and feed on algae, snails, crabs, and other small creatures that dwell on the bottom of the ocean floor. If they are present, it means that the ecology around them is sure to be healthy and diverse.
Spiny lobsters are best known for their mass migration after rainstorms at their place of habitation.
Source: Oceana
Slipper Lobsters
