Two Tone Lobster for Halloween! Is it Real?

This year Halloween presented us with another surprise from the animal world: a two tone lobster! What is it lately with lobsters? White ones, yellow ones, aqua blue ones?! Now one that is two toned! Did somebody add something to the water up in Maine?

This living lobster was caught recently by a fisherman from Massachusetts.  In case you’re thinking it can’t get stranger than that, it can. The fisherman, Dana Dunhaime, hails from Salem, Massachusetts, the sight of the famous witch trials from centuries before. You can’t make this stuff up!

However, scientists assure us that this two toned lobster is colored orange on one side and black on the other side as a result of some very natural processes. Dunhaime  who named the one pound female “Pinchy”, gave the lobster to biologists at Boston’s New England Aquarium.

According to reporter Katie Kindelan of ABC News, the aquarium spokesperson, Tony LaCasse said, “Dunhaime’s catch was no trick but a “split” lobster that is characterized by two distinct colors on each side of its body, something that occurs once out of every 50 to 100 million lobsters.”

He continued, “The split coloring in lobsters is caused by a complete cellular division when the lobster egg is first fertilized.”  Biologists further confirmed that this coloration (orange and black) is the most typical coloration in a split lobster.

This lobster has been spared the boiling pot, and instead will be used by the aquarium in an exhibit, and possible as part of a live animal presentation.

Isn’t nature amazing? And what does this mean for our cryptid animals? To me, it says they can harbor as much variation as the next species, so who knows what we’re going to discover! Keep your eyes open and your cameras charged and handy!

Til the next time!

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