Northeastern University has uncovered not a rock, not a rock lobster, but a very rare lobster.
The Boston school’s Marine Science Center is now home to Jackie the calico lobster, a one in 30 million crustacean known for its orange-and-black pigmentation.
Jackie, short for Jack O’Lantern after her Halloween-appropriate color scheme, was discovered by a lobsterman on the coast of Massachusetts, who donated the creature to Northeastern.
“Normally, the lobsters that we see are reddish, brownish, or a little bit greenish,” says Marine Science Center outreach program coordinator Sierra Munoz. “In the calico lobster, the astaxanthin combines with other pigments and proteins in a really unique way that gives her this really rare kind of mottled or freckled look.”
Thanks to her unique traits, Jackie will be swimming in the Northeastern Marine Science Center tanks and not in a cup of lobster bisque.