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Description: | Specimen of a fossil crustacean (lobster), a Mud Lobster, Thalassina squamifera, collected from unspecified rocks of Tertiary (?) age.
This fossil lobster has powerful digging claws and a very slender abdomen (lower body). Mud lobsters are common today in tropical regions along muddy shorelines and in mangrove swamps. They feed on the organic particles in the mud and build volcano-like mounds over a metre high. They are edible but have a muddy flavour and are not popular. In some areas they are pests because their burrowing affects agriculture and causes river banks and flood defences to collapse.
It is from the Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Crustacea Arthropoda | Temporal: | Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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