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All arthropods have jointed limbs, segmented and specialized parts, an exoskeleton, and a well developed nervous system.
Jointed limbs-The jointed limbs gives arthropods their names. "Arthro" means joint, and "pod" means foot. The jointed limbs allow arthropods to move.
Segmented and specialized parts-All arthropods are segmented. All of the segments are identical except for the head and rear end. Some specialized parts are wings, gills, pincers, antennae, ans claws.
Exoskeleton-The exoskeleton of an arthropod protects them from harm, and preditors. It is made of protein, and chitin.
Nervous system-The nervous system of an arthropod of course isn't as complex as ours, but it's complex for having a bugsized brain. The brain cordinates information on sense organs like their eyes, and the bristles on their exoskeleton. The bristles sense movement, vibration, pressure, and chemicals. Lobsters have compound eyes, which means their eyes are made up of many, tiny, identical light sensitive cells. |
Appearance
Lobsters belong to a group of animals called arthropods. The lobster is a crustacean related to the crab, shrimp, and crawfish. They are most commonly a greenish-brown color, but also can be red, white, yellow, and blue. All but the white ones turn red when you cook them. Lobsters can reach up to 3' long, but newly hatched lobsters are only the size of a pin head. Lobsters can weigh up to 22 pounds, but only 2 out of every 50,000 lobsters hatched make to that size. Lobsters can live to be over 100 years old.
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Diet
Lobsters eat during the night because they are nocturnal. They feast on fish, crabs, clams, mussels, sea urchins, and rarely other lobsters. But in turn many fish eat baby lobsters. Lobsters swallow their food whole, and chew it with teeth found in the stomach, this is called the "gastric mill". Then it is digested, and so on. |
The life cycle of a lobster Stage 1, a female lobster mates when she has recently molted and her shell is soft. Stage 2,The female carries the eggs internally for 9-12 months, then externally for another 9-12 months. The amount of eggs a female lobster carries depends on her size. A 1 pound lobster can carry 8,000 eggs, but a 9 pound lobster can carry around 100,000 eggs. Stage 3, Once the eggs hatch the larvae float near the surface. Fish eat the larvae, so after 4-6 weeks the remaining larvae settle to the ocean floor and start to develop. Only 2 out of every 50,000 thousand eggs layed will survive to legal size. It takes a lobster 5-7 years to reach legal size. Legal size is one pound. Stage 4, the lobster will molt around 25 times in the next 5-7 years. Every time they molt, they grow in size. After they have reached one pound they may only molt 1 time a year.
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Habitat
Small lobsters (1 1/2") hide in the sea weed and rocks where they find their food. Adolesant lobsters (1 1/2" - 3 1/1") dominate the offshore region, and large lobsters live in deeper waters. But seasonally they migrate to shallower waters. |
Fun Facts-The biggest lobster ever found was 44 pounds
-Lobsters have blue blood
-They eat their shell when they are done molting
-Lobsters can move 25ft per second when they are in the water |
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