Crayfish, crawfish, mudbugs, crawdads, crawdaddies, freshwater lobsters (photo by Kenn Stearns)

In North America there are more than 500 species of the crawfish, close relatives of the lobster. They also live in other areas of the globe including Europe, New Zealand, East Asia and the Tristan da Cunha Islands. Nearly all live in freshwater, although a few survive in salt water. Many in Louisiana refer to their state as the “crawfish capital of the world.”

Louisiana is responsible for generating 98% of the U.S. crawfish. Pocambarus clarkii (named by Charles Frédéric Girard in honor of John H. Clark, who surveyed the US-Mexican border in 1851 according to Wikipedia) or “red swamp crawfish” or “Louisiana crawfish” is an important component of Cajun cuisine. It is considered invasive in Europe because it disrupts the ecosystem of local species by spreading a fungus.

The oldest fossil records of crawfish are 115 million years old.