Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
A two-coloured lobster caught by Digby County (Nova Scotia) fisherman Edward Pothier. Tina Comeau photo
Lobster color derives from the presence of three different pigments: red, yellow, and blue. These colors typically mix to form a greenish-brown color. It is not uncommon to get a developmental error that inhibits the accumulation of red and yellow pigment, thus producing a blue lobster. Rarer is a two colored lobster. Because the two sides of lobster develop independently of each other an error can occur on one side an not the other. Most likely this occurs at a very early cell division stage and thus all alter cells on that half are also affected.
Life Science
Comments
Whoa. I've seen that in butterflies before, but this is freaky.
Posted by: The Ridger | January 18, 2008 5:42 AM
How do we know this was not a half-cooked lobster?
Posted by: Greg Laden | January 18, 2008 7:20 AM
Which side tastes better?
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | January 18, 2008 7:52 AM
Tegumai,
Clever use of Gorton's Law!
Posted by: CR McClain | January 18, 2008 9:57 AM
So THAT'S what created those black/white aliens from Star Trek! :)
Posted by: Jonathan | January 18, 2008 10:48 AM
More on our favorite two-toned friends here - http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2007/06/a_tribute_to_twotoned_lobsters.php
Posted by: Andrew | January 30, 2008 7:24 AM