#4523 · 🦀 crabs & other crustaceans
European Spiny Lobster
🇳🇱 Langoest ·Palinurus elephas
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Palinurus elephas is a spiny lobster, which is commonly caught in the Mediterranean Sea. Its common names include European spiny lobster , crayfish or cray (in Ireland), common spiny lobster , Mediterranean lobster and red lobster .
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 1,835 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1787 (239 years ago).
- Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- European Spiny Lobster
- Nederlands
- Langoest
- scientific name
- Palinurus elephas
- class
- Malacostraca
- order
- Decapoda
- family
- Palinuridae
- IUCN Red List
- VU · vulnerable
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 1,546
- sightings worldwide
- 1,835
- GBIF records in NL
- 3
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1787 by Johan Christian Fabricius
IUCN in Dutch: kwetsbaar. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Palinuridae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 324536, Wikidata Q8162866, GBIF 2221606, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.