Lobster Please!

[mausketeer]

So I have learned a lot the last few days on this forum - not the least of which is that LOBSTERS can produce "pearls" (or calcius secretions - but ew, that sounds kind of gross). As luck would have it, I am visiting my best friend in Provincetown, MA (Cape Cod) next week and her husband is a fisherman (he used to fish for tuna but sadly, they are disappearing so he has taken to lobster diving the last few years). I'm going to ask him (and some of the other locals) about lobster "pearls" when I'm there. Anyone know where in the body a lobster is more likely to produce something like this? Just curious to see one and how rare they are to find, etc. I've eaten a LOT of lobster on my visits there and of course I never thought to look for one because I'd never heard of it before!

Oh, I'm hoping to eat some fresh oysters too - yum! Maybe I'll find a pearl this time! lol

Anyone have a photo of a lobster "calcius secretion"?

- Jodie -

 

[SteveM]

Happy to oblige (as P-G resident fringe-explorer).

All living things produce anomalous 'concretions' in reaction to physiological stress, ie parasite, injury or disease. In humans, kidney stones would be the most obvious example. In the same thread or linked thread where you viewed lobster pearls, there would have been other species mentioned as well.

My personal favorite, and admittedly among the treasures of the collection, is a pearl from the Nagasari tree in Indonesia.

The question is legitimacy and pertinence to the world of pearls as discussed here. That would include gemological application, and be further defined as being composed of calcium carbonate (aragonite or calcite) as organized and controlled by an organic matrix known as conchiolin.

This is the domaine of mollusks, not arthropods…or trees.

 

[judimcc6]

Speaking of ew...has anyone ever saved their kidney stones? And, used them for some sick jewelry piece?

 

[Marianne]

Seem that after passing a kidney stone, only an extreme masochist would save it as a trophy!