Furry lobsters
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Crustacea Class: Malacostraca Order: Decapoda Infraorder: Achelata Family: Palinuridae (or Synaxidae)
Genera and Species
Palinurellus gundlachi Palinurellus wieneckii Palibythus magnificus

Furry lobsters (sometimes called coral lobsters) are small decapod crustaceans, closely related to the slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters. The antennae are not as enlarged as in spiny and slipper lobsters, and the body is covered in short hairs, hence the name furry lobster. Although previously considered a family in their own right (Synaxidae Bate, 1881), the furry lobsters were subsumed into the family Palinuridae in 1990. There are two genera, with three species between them:

• Palinurellus gundlachi Von Martens, 1878- Caribbean furry lobster, found in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic coast of South America. Named for Juan Gundlach.
• Palinurellus wieneckii (De Man, 1881) - mole lobster, with an Indo-Pacific distribution
• Palibythus magnificus PJF Davie, 1990 - musical furry lobster, from the South Pacific (originally described from Samoa)

In popular culture

Folk rock singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton wrote a song entitled "Furry Old Lobster" as part of his "Thing-a-Week" project. It references not the furry lobster described in this article, but a kind of otter and its disappearance.¹².

References