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I have a short one for you today because the research is more difficult than I was anticipating (I have opened MULTIPLE .PDFs from researchgate!!) but let met tell you the weird thing about slipper lobsters.
Slipper lobsters, which have a few other common names including "mitten lobsters" are indeed lobsters usually found in the sea. Taxonomically they're off to one side from "true lobsters" ie the thing a USAmerican thinks of when they contemplate a lobster dinner, but upon seeing one you will have no trouble agreeing that that's a funky lobster. If I had to award them a single adjective it would be cute. Slipper lobsters are range from "a bit more charming than regular lobsters, in their own goofy way" to "n'awww!" All of them want to cosplay a fancy rug of one shape or another; most of them have ended up with cartoonishly adorable bead eyes and what looks like their version of hands bundled up in front, as if they're constantly giving you big pleading puppydog looks.
Photos reposted from this pro-lobster tumblr post:
Meanwhile wikipedia offers mostly museum specimens & cooked entrees, but there's still a few nice photos! Here's a Parribacus antarcticus from Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in France:
Two Parribacus caledonicus (popinée in French):
And a Parribacus japonicus, the Japanese mitten lobster in English or ゾウリエビ/zōri-ebi to locals, which wikipedia tells me is somewhat literally comparing it to zōri sandals.
And as one final non-embed treat, here's a video of a slipper lobster ambling along in a reef. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-4sXb21JM
Alright, having looked... the thing I started researching was how those big claws in front worked. The "mitten lobster" name refers to these, and they are lobsters, so obviously they gotta be claws! I just needed to figure out the physics/full 3D anatomy of 'em–
I eventually found a labeled diagram. They're not claws. Those are highly modified ANTENNAE.
Source: Introduction to the Biology and Fisheries of Slipper Lobsters (2007) PDF
Turns out they don't have The Lobster Claws at all. They turned their antennae, or at least antennae segments 2-6, into snow shovels instead. Huh.
Slipper lobsters, which have a few other common names including "mitten lobsters" are indeed lobsters usually found in the sea. Taxonomically they're off to one side from "true lobsters" ie the thing a USAmerican thinks of when they contemplate a lobster dinner, but upon seeing one you will have no trouble agreeing that that's a funky lobster. If I had to award them a single adjective it would be cute. Slipper lobsters are range from "a bit more charming than regular lobsters, in their own goofy way" to "n'awww!" All of them want to cosplay a fancy rug of one shape or another; most of them have ended up with cartoonishly adorable bead eyes and what looks like their version of hands bundled up in front, as if they're constantly giving you big pleading puppydog looks.
Photos reposted from this pro-lobster tumblr post:
Meanwhile wikipedia offers mostly museum specimens & cooked entrees, but there's still a few nice photos! Here's a Parribacus antarcticus from Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in France:
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Two Parribacus caledonicus (popinée in French):
And a Parribacus japonicus, the Japanese mitten lobster in English or ゾウリエビ/zōri-ebi to locals, which wikipedia tells me is somewhat literally comparing it to zōri sandals.
And as one final non-embed treat, here's a video of a slipper lobster ambling along in a reef. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4-4sXb21JM
Alright, having looked... the thing I started researching was how those big claws in front worked. The "mitten lobster" name refers to these, and they are lobsters, so obviously they gotta be claws! I just needed to figure out the physics/full 3D anatomy of 'em–
I eventually found a labeled diagram. They're not claws. Those are highly modified ANTENNAE.
Source: Introduction to the Biology and Fisheries of Slipper Lobsters (2007) PDF
Turns out they don't have The Lobster Claws at all. They turned their antennae, or at least antennae segments 2-6, into snow shovels instead. Huh.
