Discover

Today
Animals
Explore
Archive
Search

Use it

Classroom
Resources
Field lab
Quiz
Saved

Trust

Methodology
Sources
Corrections
Accessibility
Contributors

Details

About
Contact
Privacy
Terms
Newsletter

Animal profile

American Lobster

Homarus americanus

MalacostracaRocky and muddy seabeds from the shoreline to about 480 metres, chiefly in cold coastal water

Field profile

The American lobster is a large clawed lobster of the cold north-west Atlantic and the basis of the most valuable single-species fishery in the region. Its two claws are differentiated into a heavy crusher and a finer cutter. Individuals can exceed twenty kilograms, though fished populations rarely contain such animals.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2025-08-08

American Lobster

Lobsters are not biologically immortal

The claim that lobsters never age comes from a real observation: they keep growing and stay fertile late in life, and their telomerase stays active. But moulting a bigger shell each time becomes energetically ruinous, and old lobsters die in the attempt.

Read with evidence →

American Lobster | Daily Animal Facts