Monday 19 July 2010

Out of his skin


At first glance, this looks remarkably like a lobster - but in fact it is just a lobster's exoskeleton - which we found that our resident arthropod had shed when we opened up the Centre this morning (note judicious use of the Royal 'we' there). 

If you look carefully, the carapace behind the head has split, perfectly neatly, right down the middle, and the segmented tail has become almost separated from the body - enabling the shiny new, and remarkably larger animal, to emerge from his previously cramped existence to a new life of freedom within his skin.  He even extracted himself from his old antennae.  He presumablyfeels a lot better now.

The old exoskeleton will now join our growing collection of similarly remarkable shells from our previous year's incumbents - which have lightened and gone pinkish with age...

Carl

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