Once they can hold a shotgun, we’re doomed. Or the octopuses are.
One annoying thing is that the news report keeps saying it has multiple claws. No, it does not. It has two big chelipeds, the correct number, and it has a number of walking claws or pereiopods that look about right. The left cheliped is weird: I can’t tell for sure, but it either has mirror-image duplication of the propodus and dactylus, or multiple duplications of the dactylus. The latter would be interesting; that would suggest a failure of the proximal-distal patterning information in the claw.
Someone more knowledgeable in the fine-grained morphology of lobster claws ought to do a labeling of the digit identities for us.
Yaddah. Yaddah. Yaddah.
How does it *taste*?
–o–
I saw a lovely bipartite lobster in Dublin’s Museum of Natural History Museums.
Reminds me of my cat (double front thumbs, dividing rather low; his thumbclaws are non-retractable).
Doesn’t look as cuddly, though.
So, we need to ship this lobster to Kentucky?
My God! Kill it. Kill it with butter!
Picture’s not perfect. But that lobster looks like it’s seen a couple of injuries. It’s also over 2 lbs so no I won’t be killing it with butter.
Send it to a nat history museum.
@Sili #1:
That must be a really big museum!
That’s my town!
We’re one of the leading sources of blue lobsters, too, which are so rare that there’s one at every corner aquarium and nature center now.
I understand there is a proposed law up in front of the Iowa legislature giving shell fish and crustaceans the right to carry.
Support your right to arm bairdi.
Polydactyl cats are quite common. I had one with a small, 3-fingered paw where the “thumb” should have been on his forelegs. The fingers were not complete, at a guess missing the second phalange, though the two that had claws were retractable. They were fairly well enervated and he actually used them as a thumb. We called him Spock because when he stretched out his paws he looked like he was making the “live long and prosper” gesture.
Loved that cat, even though he drooled when he was feeling all lovely and passionate.
Reading Your Inner Fish helped a lot in understanding how such things happen. Cannot recommend that book enough.
I, for one, welcome our polydactyl crustacean overlords. ^^°
Ah yes.
And I have yet to see Shubin make an utter arse of himself.
Tasty polydactyl crustacean overlords…
Cue the creationists: ‘See, this disproves evilution; if this so called mutation were actually beneficial, it wouldn’t have gotten caught…or would have used those tiny ‘claws’ to bust out of the trap. What use is half a hand-with-claws-for-fingers’
I’m going with a single propodus (on the bottom) along with multiple dactyli along the top.
btw, PZ, singular is just dactyl.
I’m sure it’s happened. He just doesn’t get as much press as Dawkins, and he’s not nearly as vocal an activist.
say less, less chance for fuckups.
Is it just me, or do lobsters always look pissed off?
Ichtyic:
Well, out of the water, they have good reasons to be pissed off, I guess.
Left to right in that image:
dactylus, dactylus, dactylus, propodus and…something.
The claw is a crusher, and the crusher has the white, molar-like surface on the inner side of propodus and dactylus (where they meet). Based on that, you see those white bumps on the right side of the three inner “fingers”, on the left side of the fourth, and none observable on the fifth which is, I suspect, an outgrowth of the propodus.
as a lower case scientist, I love you fucking upper case Scientists.
Wow, that lobster! ʘ_ʘ
I’m guessing everyone’s seen the ultimate Cats With Thumbs ad:
http://youtu.be/h6CcxJQq1x8
Star of the new film, District 10?
Claw -> Delicious. Is that good enough?