Peaches, the orange lobster donated to the University of New England last year, is officially a mother.
Peaches and Norma, a normal-colored lobster, are mothers to two families of 140 tiny baby lobsters at UNE's Marine Science Center in Biddeford, Maine. So far, more than a dozen of Peaches' offspring match her rare orange color. "Those orange lobsters are pretty rare in itself and, supposedly, (the odds are) about one in 30 million of finding an orange lobster," said Markus Frederich, a professor of marine sciences at the University of New England. "But rarely do we find any egg-bearing females." UNE students and faculty are now studying these lobsters in an effort to understand the genetic basis for their rare coloration. "It's so exciting. Every day I come in here, and I'm, like, on the verge of tears," said Ruby Motulsky, a student who is doing summer research on the baby lobsters. "I'm discovering new information that no one else has ever seen or heard of." “Now we have them while they develop from those different larval stages. They start tiny and molt multiple times into various different shapes and sizes," Frederich said. "That gives us so many more options to study what makes them orange and why and how they're different from the regular-colored lobster." Frederich said another orange lobster being housed at UNE, named Pineapple, is currently bearing eggs that are expected to hatch next spring.
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Peaches and Norma, a normal-colored lobster, are mothers to two families of 140 tiny baby lobsters at UNE's Marine Science Center in Biddeford, Maine. So far, more than a dozen of Peaches' offspring match her rare orange color. "Those orange lobsters are pretty rare in itself and, supposedly, (the odds are) about one in 30 million of finding an orange lobster," said Markus Frederich, a professor of marine sciences at the University of New England. "But rarely do we find any egg-bearing females." UNE students and faculty are now studying these lobsters in an effort to understand the genetic basis for their rare coloration. "It's so exciting. Every day I come in here, and I'm, like, on the verge of tears," said Ruby Motulsky, a student who is doing summer research on the baby lobsters. "I'm discovering new information that no one else has ever seen or heard of." “Now we have them while they develop from those different larval stages. They start tiny and molt multiple times into various different shapes and sizes," Frederich said. "That gives us so many more options to study what makes them orange and why and how they're different from the regular-colored lobster." Frederich said another orange lobster being housed at UNE, named Pineapple, is currently bearing eggs that are expected to hatch next spring.
