We can often see pictures of lobsters on social media, and then the caption reads: Theoretically this crustacean is immortal!
While lobsters often struggle on our tables, it's this "immortal physique" that really makes them famous. Under the rendering of many headline parties, it is difficult for lobsters to think of not being famous.
But is this really the case as it is said?
In fact, this widely circulated scientific anecdote dates back to a brief news story in 2007 that claimed that lobsters had no typical signs of aging. Simply put, lobsters don't get older like other creatures — age doesn't reduce their ability to reproduce, slow their metabolism or reduce their power.
It was from this report that many social media inferred that lobsters would not die without alarming them.
Note: Telomeres in chromosomes
Later, a scientific research team announced that lobsters can have this "non-aging" performance thanks to their DNA, especially telomerase, which is an enzyme used to divide cells and protect the ends of chromosomes.
Other organisms age precisely because each division of the cell causes the ends of the chromosomes to become shorter, and when the substance called telomeres at the ends of this chromosome is exhausted, the organism is also GG. Lobsters' telomerase protects against this depletion, which is why they remain viable all the time.
It should be noted here that this telomerase is also present in the human body, and the typical example is HeLa cells, which can be seen in my article on HeLa cells.
Interestingly, lobsters are very different from us, our bones basically do not change after forming, lobsters will continue to grow through the way of molting, it seems that there is really potential to grow into a monster.
Is the lobster really immortal?
Of course, this is just a story of false rumors. Indeed, lobsters continue to eat, reproduce, and grow at the end of their lives. It's true that this isn't typical aging, but that doesn't mean they won't die. Even with human intervention without being eaten by predators, they can die of their own problems.
But, like most crustaceans (including crayfish and other shrimp), no one now knows how long they will live or how old they will grow.
Lobsters grow by shedding hard exoskeletons, and generally lobsters can molt their shells 44 times before they are one year old, and then change their shells on average every six years, and then every two to three years, and as the exoskeletons continue to fall off, they become larger.
The largest lobster ever caught in Nova Scotia in 1977 (not recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records) weighs 44 pounds and 6 ounces and is 3.5 feet long, which translates to less than 20 kilograms and more than 1 meter long, which is the same weight as a first-grader.
In fact, it is definitely more advantageous for lobsters to become larger, to reduce predators, not to mention, and for females to have more successful reproduction, because it can carry more eggs.
If lobsters could really grow indefinitely, we would probably be exposed to larger lobsters, but the truth is that we are exposed to much smaller lobsters than the largest lobster in history, and even half of them are difficult to reach.
On our table, it is often one or two pounds (1 pound≈0.91 pounds) that is more common, and some varieties will exceed 5 pounds, but more than 10 pounds, that is to cause a sensation in fishing activities.
In fact, the reason is very simple, lobsters can not grow indefinitely, all living things have a size of the value, this value is limited by the organism itself and external factors.
So, if you want to turn lobsters into monsters, it's impossible!
How do lobsters die naturally?
Lobster molting is actually a stressful process, lobsters that lose exoskeletons are equal to shells without predation and defense, as well as strong pliers, so they are vulnerable to attack, and many lobsters die in the fragile period after molting.
But being eaten doesn't mean aging, so what is the natural death of lobsters?
Data show that 10% to 15% of lobsters die naturally after shedding an exoskeleton every year, which can be said to be exhaustion, because the molting consumption is too large.
As the lobster grows in size, each molting process requires more energy than the previous one. Finally, older lobsters will completely stop shedding exoskeletons, suggesting that their lifespan is nearing the end.
When they exhaust the energy of their metabolism and cannot molt, over time, their dilapidated shells become infected by bacteria, weakening their abilities.
Picture note: Crustacean lobster
This is true not only of lobsters, but also of most crustaceans, and at the end of life, they will get a disease called "crustacean disease".
Crustacean is a type of bacteria that penetrates into the tissues of crustaceans and attaches the body of crustaceans to their shells, at which point the shell really cannot be shed.
Crustaceans then suffer from other diseases, and in extreme cases, the entire shell decays and kills the animals inside.
This is actually the "aging" of lobsters, just like the elderly die of pneumonia, no matter how you help it will not help.
The lifespan of lobsters
You may also be curious, how long can such a wonderful lobster live?
The lobster, now the longest-lived lobster, is thought to be over 140 years old, and it has lived in a seafood restaurant in New York for more than 20 years.
However, all about the lifespan of lobsters is only an estimate, and scientists have not yet had a truly effective way to determine the age of lobsters.
Because lobsters molt their entire exoskeleton, including the digestive tract and stomach mill, when they molt, they do not leave any parts that judge its age.
However, there are other methods to determine the age of lobsters, such as measuring fat residues in the eye stalks of crustaceans, and measuring its accumulation rate to determine the lifespan of lobsters, which shows that the average lifespan of male lobsters in Europe is 31 years, and the average lifespan of female lobsters is 54 years.
Through these different methods, the lifespan of the obtained lobster is not the same, but in any case, the lobster is not immortal, and even the theoretical immortality is impossible.
At last
Although lobsters rarely die of old age, unlike humans, they must not evolve into immortality, otherwise we would not see this creature now.
Because biologically immortal creatures are certainly deadly, they can be wiped out by catastrophic changes in the environment such as predators, diseases, or volcanic eruptions, and the best way to cope with these changes is to reproduce.