Lobster Facts for Kids

19 Lobster Facts For Kids

1. Lobster is the common name for a large family of marine crustaceans in the Decapoda order.
2. Paleontologist have discovered fossil evidence showing clawed lobsters existed at least 140 million years ago.
3. Lobsters can be identified by their elongated bodies, muscular tails, and ten legs which six of will have claws, with the first two being much bigger than the rest.
4. There are 75 lobster species recognized by scientists worldwide.
5. Lobsters are omnivores and eat both meat and plant material.
6. A lobster’s diet can include aquatic plants, crustaceans (including other lobster), fish, and mollusks.
7. Lobsters commonly have a dark color (bluish green or greenish brown) but can come in a wide variety of colors.
8. Some lobsters have a mutation that gives them a very rare color.
9. For example, catching an albino-colored lobster is a 1 in 100,000,000 chance.
10. Lobster species on average are between 10 and 20 inches in length, but there are extreme cases that fall outside this range.
11. The smallest lobster species is the Ausubel's mighty clawed lobster (Dinochelus ausubeli) with a length of only 1.2 inches.
12. The largest lobster species is the Maine lobster (Homarus americanus) with a weight between 1 and 9 pounds.
13. The heaviest Maine lobster every caught was a massive 44 pounds and was caught off Nova Scotia, Canada.
14. Lobsters are believed to live between 45 and 50 years, but that is an estimated because determining an age is difficult.
15. Lobsters are popular seafood dish, but in the American Colonial times lobster was fed to goats, chickens, and the poor.
16. When you think of the color of a lobster, you think red, however that is just the color they turn into when cooked.
17. A lobster can escape a predator by swimming backwards at speeds of 10+ miles per hour
18. A person who catches lobster for profit is called a harvester or a lobsterman.
19. Lobstermen catch lobsters using a trap called as a lobster pot, which allows lobsters to enter, but not leave.

Lobster Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on lobsters. Below are three pictures of various lobster species. These pictures should help you better understand the different types of lobsters found around the world.

A picture of the Maine lobster homarus americanus.

A picture of the Caribbean lobster panulirus argus.

A picture of the California spiny lobster panulirus interruptus.