Lobster Facts
Did you know? The largest lobster recorded was caught off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, and weighed 44.4 lbs (20.14 kg); it was between 3 and 4 ft (0.9 to 1.2 m) long. Scientists think it was at least 100 years old!
They do not taste with their mouths; Chemosensory allows them to identify food through tiny hairs on their legs and feet.
Lobsters in the wild have a dark green hue to their shells and turn bright red when cooked. This color change happens because heating breaks the bond between pigmentation and protein in the shell. The red color comes from the expression of astaxanthin, a type of carotenoid pigment found in orange-colored plants, eaten by the animals the lobster eats.
In rare cases lobsters can be red prior to cooking, but not only red, a multitude of other colors have been found with different markings and patterns as well. In some cases the colors are genetic mutations and the lobsters diet and environment can be factors as well.
How hard can a lobster’s crusher claw squeeze? A large lobster can easily exert pressure of up to 100 pounds per square inch. Lobsters have 2 different claws that are used for catching there food. The "crusher" claw is the larger claw that has molar like bumps that are used to break up hard foods like crabs, clams, mussels. The smaller "pincer" is much quicker but less powerful then the crusher, it is used to rip apart food into smaller bite size pieces.
Ever wonder why lobsters have bands on their claws and other crustaceans do not? If no other food is available lobsters are cannibalistic.
Do lobsters feel pain when you cook them? This is a much debated question and Neurophysiologists have done studies that have shown that the nervous system of a lobster is very simple. For an organism to perceive pain it must have a more complex nervous system so lobsters, like insects, do not process pain.
Do lobsters scream while being cooked? Lobsters do not possess vocal cords so they cannot scream or vocalise; the sound that is heard is air trapped in the body escaping due to expansion from heating.