A lobster is a large ocean creature with a hard shell, eight legs, and two powerful claws. Lobsters live on the seafloor, often hiding in rocky crevices and coming out at night to hunt for fish, clams, and other small sea animals. They can grow quite large: some lobsters weigh over 40 pounds and might be 100 years old.

Lobsters have fascinated people for centuries. In colonial America, lobsters were so abundant that they washed up on beaches in piles, and people considered them food for poor folks or fertilizer for crops. Today, lobster is considered a delicacy and appears on menus at fancy restaurants.

When you see a bright red lobster on a dinner plate, remember that lobsters aren't naturally that color. Living lobsters are usually greenish-brown or blue-gray. They only turn red when cooked because heat breaks down all the pigments in their shells except the red ones.

Lobsters grow by molting: they shed their hard shell and grow a new, larger one. During molting, a lobster is soft and vulnerable, so it hides until its new shell hardens. This process continues throughout their lives, which is why some lobsters can grow so remarkably large.