This two - toned lobster , get to begin with this weekoff the New England coast , looks like he ’s dressed for Halloween . But the schism colour is n’t a costume at all — it ’s an unbelievably rarefied rude occurrence . How rarified ? Try one in 50 million .
But those bit only make the orangish - brown rent - colored specimen 2d stead on the list of outlandish lobster style , of which there are several others . In each , agenetic mutationsilences one or more of the cerise , yellow , and blue pigments that together make up the typical lobster ’s brown hue . find out them out below , in order from least to most rarified .
1. Blue Lobster
Wikimedia Commons//CC BY - SA 3.0
The dispirited lobster , one of which was catch by a adolescent last August in Maine , is relatively common , appearing at a relative frequency of about one in 2 million .
2. Yellow-Orange
Last summer , theNew England Aquarium acquireda xanthous - orange lobster , which might not be as immediately striking as the dark variety , but actually appear even less ofttimes , close to one in 30 million . In the video above , the aquarium present the Modern addition to their other unambiguously - hued residents — including a two - toned specimen of their own .
3. Two-toned
Like the other rarities above , the schism - colouration is the result of a hereditary mutation relate to pigment activation . But the near - perfectdivision of coloris believed to be due to a arrant cellular split when the lobster egg is first fertilized . Because of this dual development , split - color lobsters are often hermaphrodites as well .
4. White
The rarest of them all , the white or albino lobster , appears once in every 100 million . In fact , seeing even one is so unbelievable that when two plow up within a week of each other last summer , expert express some skepticismthat they were true albinos .
