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What are they?
A lobster is a crustacean, living at the ocean bed, but near the shore. The animal has 2 large claws, almost as long as it's body. The tail spreads out like a fan. Large ones can weigh upto more than 15 kg. These animals are invertebrates.
How do they live?
The common lobster of the continent of North America, which is usually called the American lobster, measures 30 to 60 centimetres long and weighs 0.5 to 1 kilogram. Most European lobsters are smaller than American lobsters. The lobster's body has 19 parts. The head has five parts, the thorax (center part) has eight, and the abdomen has six. Each part is covered by a section of the shell. The shell is thin and soft where the parts join, so the lobster can bend its body and move about. It breathes with gills. It has two pairs of antennae. The eyes are compound. The antennae, legs, shells are covered with millions of tiny sensors that can help it find food, since the hair have sensors. Lobster life Lobsters live at the ocean bed and hide in holes or rocks at 1.8 to 37 metres. It sits in a burrow and waits for a prey to come near the burrow. At night it becomes active, and goes around to eat - snails, crabs etc. form it's diet. If it spots and enemy ( bigger enemy ), it retreats to it's burrow. A female lobster generally lays eggs once in two years. But to make up for this, she lays eggs in thousands 500 or more. The number varies not by species but by size and age. After 12 months of laying the eggs, they hatch ( the eggs are carried by the female under the curve of her tail ). They rise to the surface and swim for around a month. Then they sink to the bottom, spending most of their lives there. But when the swim at the surface after hatching, they are easy prey to hungry animals. Lobsters live 10 to 15 years. During it's life, a lobster moults. They first do it 2 days upon hatching and three times in the first month. In the process of moulting, it first gives out a liquid softening the shell and then splits it open. The new shell under the old one must harden, and till then they hide.
From where did they evolve and when?
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