Homarus gammarus

Homarus gammarus, known as the European lobster or common lobster, is a species of clawed lobster in the family Nephropidae, found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Black Sea, ranging from northern Norway to the Azores and Morocco and along the southwestern Black Sea coast. It may reach 60 centimeters in length and 6 kilograms in mass, and carries one asymmetrical pair of claws, a rounded crusher claw and a sharp-edged cutter claw. Living specimens have a blue exoskeleton with coalescing spots above and yellow below; the familiar red coloring only appears after cooking, when the red pigment astaxanthin is freed as the protein complex holding it denatures. It is closely related to the American lobster but differs in the spination of its rostrum and the coloring of its claw spines and undersides, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.