Crustaceans and Colleges

A lobster that already looks like it's been cooked on one side won't suffer the real thing, thanks to a sharp-eyed fisherman.

The oddly coloured lobster "looks curious ... It was almost just the same as [being] boiled on one side," said Kirk Tulk, who caught the lobster in one of his pots outside his home in Aspen Cove, in Hamilton Sound on Newfoundland's northeast coast.

The lower right part of the lobster's body is bright orange, as is its upper claw.

Tulk said he has been told that the unusual colouring may be due to a protein deficiency in the lobster's body.

Tulk is donating the lobster to the marine interpretation centre in Terra Nova National Park, which includes observation tanks that can be viewed by the public.

The lobster will also be examined by scientists from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
(Article courtesy of CBC.)

It looks more like a case of chimerism (non-identical twins fused into a single individual early in development) than like some sort of deficiency. Of course, any Texan will immediately recognize this orange – and – maroon animal as being the offspring of a Longhorn lobster with an Aggie lobster. The only odd thing is that the UT orange is on the right side. Normally, the Aggie part would be well to the right, and the UT part on the extreme left. I wonder where in the stadium it sits during football season?