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🦁 Animal world 🐬 Sea animals

The lobster

The lobster

πŸ“– In short

The lobster is a sea animal that lives on the seabed near rocky shores. Its body is covered in a hard shell like armor, with two big claws at the front and a tail that fans out. It's related to crabs and shrimp.

🀩 Did you know?

  • A female lobster carries her eggs for 11 to 12 months.
  • Baby lobsters float for 3 to 5 weeks before going down to the bottom.
  • A live lobster is usually greenish-brown or blue, and turns red when cooked.
  • A lobster can live more than 50 years.

πŸ”Ž Find out more

🌟 Two different claws

In many kinds of lobster one claw is big and strong for cracking shells, and the other is smaller and finer for holding and cutting food.

πŸ” Swimming backwards

A lobster walks slowly along the seabed on its legs, but if it's scared it flicks its tail hard and shoots backwards very fast!

πŸ’‘ Changing its armor

A lobster's shell doesn't grow with it, so each time it grows it climbs out of the old one, then hides until its new shell hardens, because it's soft and weak during those days.

🎯 Mom carries the eggs

A female lobster carries thousands of eggs under her tail for about a whole year until they hatch. Then the babies float near the surface for weeks before going down to the bottom.

πŸ“Έ More pictures

The lobster

🧩 Test yourself

1 How does a lobster escape quickly?

2 What does a lobster do as it grows?

3 A lobster can live more than ?? years.

4 Which picture shows β€œThe lobster”?

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πŸ“· Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons