An extremely rare, split-colored lobster was gifted a new home on Christmas Eve after he was discovered inside a Maine grocery store’s seafood tank.
The unusual-looking sea creature named Arnold Clawmer is half-red and half-mottled brown — a characteristic that only happens in 1 in 50 million lobsters.
Arnold arrived at the Shaw Institute Environmental Education Center over the holidays after a “very sympathetic” shopper spotted him inside the Shop and Save grocery store in Milbridge, Maine.
Once the shopper handed him off to researchers, they first got Arnold acclimated to living in a touch tank at the Oceanarium in Bar Harbor before bringing him to the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill, Maine.
According to the University of Maine, a touch tank is an aquarium exhibit where visitors can gently touch critters that aren’t dangerous as they learn about ecosystems and marine life.
The Shaw Institute claimed that Split lobsters – called chimeras – happen during the early stages of development when two fertilized eggs fuse together and form one lobster which results in the remarkable appearance of Arnold.
“Not only do genetics need to be right but the physical conditions inside the mother need to be right as well,” the Shaw Institute shared.
Arnold has another characteristic that makes him an even rarer ocean dweller.
The marine creature uses his crusher claw on the left side to grab food as opposed to the right side which most lobsters use to strip and cut meat while feeding on foods like fish, the Shaw Institute said.
“Lobsters are opportunistic carnivores. Meaning they will hunt for food but will also scavenge if they can,” according to the Shaw Institute. “They hunt for clams, mussels, crabs, urchins, sea stars, and really anything slower and or smaller than themselves. Including occasionally other lobsters!”
Arnold isn’t the only rare lobster recently found across Maine.
In November 2023, a rare dual-sex lobster named Bowie was discovered by a lobsterman, according to NPR.
The half-blue and half-red critter also had a 1 in 50 million occurrence.
Bowie, who was named after British singer-songwriter David Bowie, had a condition known as gynandromorphy which caused female and male tissues to form together and coexist.
Bowie initially stayed at the same aquarium in Bar Harbor that Arnold briefly went to, according to PetHelpful.com.
But Bowie was eventually released back into the wild.
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