Monday, August 2, 2010

Yellow Lobster: rare genetic variation (1 in 30 million)

A lobster fisherman came across this extremely rare yellow lobster in his lobster trap recently. How rare? One in 30 million! It's not that it is part of a dwindling obscure species; lobsters can have occasional color variations that are caused by an unpredictable genetic mutation. There have also been blue and even white lobsters (the white lobster is the rarest of all: 1 in 100 million).

Although caught, this yellow lobster did not end up as dinner. The fisherman has donated it to the local lobster fishermen association for display in an aquarium.

To view an AP video of the lobster (and some of the other color variants), click on the image above.

1 comment:

TheDorsalFin said...

Cool story. Glad to hear he/she didn't end up on somebody's plate.