Breaking Hues: Why Lobsters Turn Red

A team of marine biologists has cracked open the mystery of why exactly lobsters and other crustaceans turn red when cooked. We're left to presume that the butter was drawn alongside the conclusions, and that they celebrated their discovery with a really, really nice dinner.

As featured on ABC (Australia) News, the study, which is published in the current issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution, uncovers the mechanisms behind the crustaceans' singular pigmentation.

With a coloration system found nowhere else in the animal kingdom, lobsters and crabs and the like rely on a complex series of interacting proteins and pigments to deliberately alter their color for purposes of camouflage and even communication with each other. But these linkages are completely broken down when subjected to boiling water.

The result is that key proteins required for color variation are destroyed. The cooked shell consequently displays the signature red-orange that results from a base pigment totally removed from interaction and linkage with the other compounds necessary for varied hues.

Photo courtesy of NOAA, via Wikimedia Commons.