Blue lobster - what is the cause of the unusual colouration? - video

The beauty and diversity of the underwater world will never cease to amaze us. The unique forms and the total difference from what we can meet on the surface, makes every expedition to the depths an incredible adventure. Often, during our observations, we meet animals and plants that have taken the evolutionary path to its most amazing nooks and crannies. Sometimes, however, it is a mere coincidence, an imbalance in the ecosystem or a mutation that can cause the creation of something extraordinary.

If you have come across a blue lobster underwater during your travels, you may consider yourself extremely lucky. Such a specimen is born one in every two million lobsters with the classic colouration!

-- Advertisement --

Scientists say that these amazing cobalt blue colouration, some lobsters owe to a particular genetic anomaly. A defect that causes excessive protein production. The combination of these excess proteins and a pigment that is an antioxidant in the lobsters’ food makes chitin more likely to be coloured blue more often than the traditional brown colour.

Unfortunately for the owner of such a distinctive and beautiful armour, life is not easy. In its natural habitat, the blue lobster is much more likely to fall prey to predators because it is too conspicuous and this makes it difficult for it to hide from the eyes of the hunter.

However, as it turns out, the unique blue colour is not the most unique colouration of these animals. In nature, we can also find lobsters with yellow and white (albino) colouration, which occur respectively once every 30 million and 100 million specimens!

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”31298″]