Lobsters don’t chew with their mouths — know why

2 min readNew DelhiJul 25, 2026 11:00 AM IST Most of us think chewing happens in the mouth. After all, that’s where our teeth are. Well, that’s not the case with lobsters who seem to have a shocking way of chewing. These armoured crustaceans don’t actually chew with their mouths. Instead, they have a set of tooth-like structures inside their stomach that grind up food after it is swallowed.The unusual mechanism is called a gastric mill. Located in the lobster’s foregut, it consists of three hard, tooth-like plates made from chitin — the same tough material that forms the animal’s shell. When a lobster eats, its mouthparts help tear and move food into the digestive system. The food then reaches the gastric mill, where the stomach “teeth” crush and grind it into smaller pieces before digesti