Violin-Like Alarm Found in Lobsters

Spiny lobsters try to scare off predators by making loud sounds using the biological equivalent of a violin, Duke University researchers said. It is the first time such a mechanism has been observed in nature, biologist Sheila Patek reported in last week’s Nature. Because lobsters cannot hear except at very close range, researchers believe the sounds represent a defense mechanism rather than communication.

Using an underwater microphone and tiny sensors attached to lobsters’ antennae, Patek showed that the sounds are produced when a soft tissue on the antennae called a plectrum is rubbed over a protuberance above the eye called a file, like a bow being scraped across a violin.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II