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3.Females Carry Live Sperm Up to Two Years
3.雌性龙虾可以携带活精子长达两年之久
When lobsters mate, the male deposits his sperm into the female before she leaves, but that doesn't mean that her eggs are fertilized right away.
龙虾交配时，雄性会在雌性离开前把它的精子储存给雌性，但这并不意味着雌性的卵子立刻受精。
In some cases he hasn't provided enough sperm to fertilize all of her eggs -- there could be tens of thousands of them -- so she may seek out one or more additional males to get the job done.
在某些情况下，雄性并不能提供足够的精子使雌性的卵都受精—雌性可能有成千上万颗卵，所以雌性龙虾会寻找一个或多个的雄性完成这项受精工作。
But even then her eggs might not be fertilized, because the female decides when conditions are just right. She may store live sperm in her body for two years before using them to fertilize her eggs.
但即使这样，雌性的卵子也不可能全部受精，因为雌性龙虾会自行选择合适的环境受精。在使用活精子使卵子受精之前，雌性可以让精子在她的体内存活两年。
Once the lobster fertilizes the eggs, they may stay inside her for another year before she lays them. And then they can stay attached to her swimmerets -- the small legs under her tail -- for another 9 to 11 months.
一旦龙虾的卵受精，这些受精卵会在雌性龙虾产卵前，在其体内继续逗留一年。它们会吸附在雌性的游泳足上（雌性龙虾尾巴下面的小腿）度过9到10个月的时间。
After they hatch, the larvae float for about a month before settling on the bottom of the ocean to grow.
受精卵孵化后，这些龙虾幼体在沉到海洋深处生长发育前会漂浮大约一个月的时间。
Only 1 percent of larvae make it to the bottom and in general, just two of every 50,000 eggs live long enough to become adult lobsters of catchable size.
只有1%的龙虾幼体能够顺利抵达海底，在一般情况下，每5万颗卵中只有两颗能够生存下来，并成长到可以捕捞的成年龙虾的尺寸。
The lengthy life cycle and small payoff help explain why female lobsters are discriminating about when they decide to fertilize and lay their eggs.
漫长的生命周期和极少的回报有助于帮助我们解释为什么这些能够决定受精和产卵的雌性龙虾会被区分对待。
2.Lobsters Can Be Cannibals
2.龙虾可能同类相食
One reason why more baby lobsters don't make it to adulthood? They tend to turn on each other. After hatching, lobsters go through numerous stages of development.
为什么很多小龙虾还没长成就死了呢？因为它们总是自相残杀。龙虾在孵化之后要经历好几个成长步骤。
Once they start to actually look like little lobsters, they're not just floating along and eating zooplankton, fish eggs and other types of larvae anymore.
一旦它们看上去像小龙虾了，就不再只是游荡着吃浮游动物，鱼卵和其他种类的幼虫了。
They're competing for food and going after prey like crab, gastropods, starfish and marine worms. In close quarters, these juveniles will eat each other without any qualms.
它们会互相争夺食物，开始捕食像螃蟹，腹足类动物，海星和海生蠕虫了。如果两只小龙虾相互靠近，他们就会毫无疑虑的吃掉对方。
This behavior is part of why lobsters aren't often raised in captivity -- they have to be separated into individual containers.
这就是龙虾不会集体饲养而是分开喂食的部分原因。
This cannibalistic behavior isn't limited to baby lobsters, though. It's common for adults to eat juveniles or lobsters that have just molted when they're in traps or tanks.
这种同类相食的行为并不仅局限于小龙虾，我们平时更多见的是，成年龙虾在饲养池里吃掉小龙虾或刚蜕皮的龙虾。
Until recently, though, researchers hadn't witnessed this type of behavior in the wild. Then in 2012, scientists in Maine filmed lobsters practicing infanticide.
直到最近，研究员才在野外发现龙虾的这种行为。2012年，缅因州的科学家拍下了龙虾捕食同类幼体的过程。
They tethered a juvenile lobster, figuring that its natural predators, such as cod and skate, would take advantage. At night, though, adult lobsters fought over it.
他们锁定了一只幼年小龙虾，发现它跟鳕鱼和鳐鱼一样，是会利用一切的天生捕食者。然而在晚上时，成年龙虾则跟这只小龙虾争斗。
The cannibalism was blamed on a recent glut of lobsters. Warmer waters and overfishing practices had reduced the populations of their natural predators.
这些同类相食的龙虾曾一度因数量太多而被责备。然而，水温升高和过度捕捞已经使得它们这些天生捕食者数目大减。
1.They Don't Show Signs of Aging
1.龙虾并不显年纪
If you believe everything you read, you may recall seeing a lobster meme in the summer of 2013 -- a photo of a lobster with the phrase "biologically immortal, delicious with butter."
如果你记得所有读过的东西，你可能会记起2013年夏天看到过的一只叫美美的龙虾的照片。上面还写着一句话，“长生不老，辅以黄油更美味。”
I can attest to the latter part, but the former isn't true. Lobsters don't age in the same way as most other animals – they don't get weaker or lose their ability to reproduce, and will keep on molting and growing.
我没法证实这句话的后半部分，但我可以确定它的前半部分是不对的。龙虾和其他动物的变老方式不一样，他们不会因为上了年纪而变得衰弱或失去繁殖能力，而是一直进化成长。
However, that doesn't mean that they live forever. At some point, even if they aren't caught, they die due to natural causes. Often this is because they run out of energy to molt at all and not molting leads to fatal diseases.
但是，这并不意味着他们能永生。从某种方面讲，即使没有被人抓去，它们也会因为自然因素死掉。通常是由脱皮时能量消耗过度，或者没有脱皮而导致致命的病变。
So, we know that lobsters eventually die, but we aren't quite sure when.
所以，我们知道了龙虾最终会死，但是不确定是什么时候。
Lobsters reach their adult size when they weigh between 1.5 and 2 pounds (680 and 907 grams), but the heaviest one ever caught clocked in at 44 pounds (20 kilograms).
龙虾在体重达到1.5至2磅（680至907克）的时候就成年了，但是跟据纪录，人类捕捉到的最重的龙虾是44磅（20千克）。
Some estimate that lobsters in the wild can live up to 50 years.
野外生长的龙虾估计可以长到50岁。
Scientists estimate a lobster's age by measuring levels of materials known to accumulate in its body over time, such as deposits of fat in its eyestalks or a pigment called eurolipofuscin in its brain.
科学家可以通过测量龙虾体内随着时间积聚的已知材料等级来估计它们的年龄，比如它们眼柄的脂肪含量或大脑里一种叫eurolipofuscin的色素。
The latest research indicates that the best way to estimate lobster age may be by counting age bands well hidden inside the gastric mill in one of its stomachs.
最近的研究表明，最好的方法是计算藏在它们其中一个胃里的胃齿白，从而估计年龄范围以最终得出龙虾的年龄。
