Hybridization – New test identifies lobster hybrids
American lobsters have occasionally escaped or been released into European waters after being imported for the seafood market. Experts have long feared they could threaten European lobsters by introducing disease or establishing as an invasive species. Hybridization – when a “pure” species is threatened at a genetic level via interbreeding with a different but related species, had been less of a concern because lab studies suggested European and American lobsters were reluctant to mate. However, when an American lobster female was found bearing eggs in a fjord in Sweden, University of Exeter researchers tested the offspring and found they were “clearly distinct” from both European and American lobsters. >click to read< 11:42
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