Lobster with problems!

I took this shot ten days ago during a (very rough) Seasearch weekend. We sheltered and dived despite Force 8 winds (it was decidedly better underwater) and found some odd things off the north Anglesey coast in North Wales, UK.

Amongst them was this badly distorted lobster. Regeneration has occurred but with some distortion, however what intrigues me are the main antennae, or rather the coiled cone structures where the antennae should be. Are these the internal structure simply exposed and retracted or are they the actual antennae regenerating?

Hi Paul -- I passed the images to Jody Martin, our crustacea curator. His reply: "I've never seen that before -- my guess is that it's just an abnormality, a genetic malfunction that caused the antennae to grow weird. Pretty

interesting, but I don't know anything about what could have caused it or

why it is growing in a spiral like that."

I can post your images on a crustacean list server if you want more opinions.

Hi Leslie

Any info gratefully received, so please post away!

I'm getting odd comments from various sources but nothing definitive. One concern is that there may be pollutants (from old mines, and including heavy metals) in the vicinity and I'm starting to wonder if these may be interfering with the regeneration process. If anyone has any experience of deformation during regeneration and its causes I'd like to hear about it.

This isn't a structure behind the antenna, because the next segment is very like the base of a leg, with muscles and a nerve running through it. My best guess is that this is an un-calcified antenna, and if the lobster moults it will inflate and then calcify, making a new antenna of the proper shape.

Tim

B)

I took this shot ten days ago during a (very rough) Seasearch weekend. We sheltered and dived despite Force 8 winds (it was decidedly better underwater) and found some odd things off the north Anglesey coast in North Wales, UK.

 

Amongst them was this badly distorted lobster. Regeneration has occurred but with some distortion, however what intrigues me are the main antennae, or rather the coiled cone structures where the antennae should be. Are these the internal structure simply exposed and retracted or are they the actual antennae regenerating?

There is another weird thing about antennae: mutations in the gene complex that regulates the growth of the antennae can create eyes, legs, antennules etc. A somatic mutation wouldn't do it, though, so any lobster mutant would have to be born that way. Even weirder, essentially the same genes work to create OUR limbs, as well.

Tim

B)

Hi Tim

I'm told that this has been seen before but so far given no explanation by people who have seen it. Given the importance of the antennae to the lobster is it at all possible that the antennae regenerate initially as this coil then expand and harden even if the lobster does not moult? I ask because I can't think that a sensitive structure like an antennae could survive as a soft structure given that wrasse and suchlike fishes would be only too pleased to have an easy snack (they are known to eat crab's eyes and the like I believe)!