#common lobster

Common lobster / European lobster propaganda:

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Horseshoe crab propaganda:

Common Lobster (Homarus gammarus), St Abbs (St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve), Berwickshire, Scotland, UK, October 2011. 2020VISION Book Plate. Did you know? Crustaceans have blue blood, which unlike vertebrate blood relies on copper to carry oxygen.

European Lobster

Common lobster (Homarus gammarus)

Taxonomy: Animalia, Arthropoda, Crustacea, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Nephropidae, Homarus, H. gammarus

Description: H. gammarus is a typical lobster species, reaching lengths of 60 cm and weights of 5-6 kg. Their most prominent features are their claws, which are modified pereiopods. As with other crustaceans, H. gammarus displays handedness; there is a predisposition towards right handedness, with the left claw being a large crusher and the right claw being a longer, thinner cutter. This species is blue in coloration, with red antennae and claw tips.

Lifestyle: H. gammarus is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean sea, between 0-150m sea level. They live in holes and crevices, and are mostly nocturnal. These lobsters predate on other crustaceans, as well as polychaete worms and echinoderms. H. gammarus carries eggs for a year, which then hatch into planktonic larvae. The larvae eventually reach the seabed, forming extensive burrows. It is estimated that 1 in 20,000 larvae survive to the benthic phase.

They are one of the few habitats of the monophyletic phyla cycliophora, which are found on the lobsters’ mouthparts.