How many legs does a lobster have?

How many legs does a lobster have? A lobster has 10 legs. It is a decapod crustacean, a name derived from Greek roots meaning “ten-footed,” and its two large claws count as modified legs.

A lobster has five pairs of walking limbs attached to its cephalothorax. The first pair ends in powerful pincers, while the other four pairs are chiefly used for walking across the sea floor. This is why saying that a lobster has eight legs overlooks the claw-bearing pair.

Lobsters belong to the order Decapoda, alongside crabs, shrimp, crayfish, and prawns. Their hard exoskeleton protects the body, but it cannot expand, so lobsters must moult to grow. Immediately after moulting, the animal is soft and vulnerable until its new shell hardens.

The word “lobster” can cause another minor confusion because several unrelated crustaceans have lobster in their names. In ordinary usage, however, it usually means a clawed lobster of the family Nephropidae. Those animals have eight walking legs plus two clawed legs.