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Another rare lobster is making a splash at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant. The brilliantly colored orange and black lobster is called a calico, and the odds of catching one are believed to be only one in 30 million, says Sierra Munoz, outreach program coordinator at the Marine Science Center.

That makes the female lobster—whom Munoz's children named Jackie, short for Jack O'Lantern—even more rare than the recently arrived blue lobster Neptune, whose coloration is about one in 2 million.

Like Neptune, Jackie was caught off the coast of Massachusetts, this time by Mike Tufts, a lobsterman who operates out of Gloucester.

"One day he sent me a message with a picture of this beautiful calico and asked if we had room in our tanks for another beautiful, rare lobster," Munoz says.

"I said, 'Of course we do,'" Munoz says. "It's such a thoughtful—and fun—donation to our science education program."

Jackie's rare but vivid shades are the result of a mixture of chemical compounds, including astaxanthin, the compound that makes lobsters red and shrimp pink.

"Normally, the lobsters that we see are reddish, brownish, or a little bit greenish," Munoz says.

"In the calico lobster, the astaxanthin combines with other pigments and proteins in a really unique way that gives her this really rare kind of mottled or freckled look," Munoz says.

Jackie is bright orange with drizzles of black and touches of yellow. She even has blue at her joints, thanks to the presence of the protein crustacyanin, an extra supply of which gives Neptune his cobalt shell.

Whether the sprightly, claw-waving, antenna wriggling Jackie will be as popular as Neptune remains to be seen.

"We see about 5,000 people over the course of a year between community programs and classroom programs and field trips that come here," Munoz says.

Neptune has his own special carrying case and has been visiting local elementary schools with Munoz.

"Students have been getting a real kick out of it," she says. "Kids love learning about rare animals and how special they are and how many different types of life there are in the ocean."

"It really invites a lot of cool questions and connections," Munoz says.

Among other things, children want to know if Jackie had babies, would they look like her?

The answer is, scientists don't really know because calicos are so rare—but there is a genetic component to coloration, so it's possible, Munoz says.

More calicos may be born than survive to be discovered, because their unusual coloring might make them stand out as prey, she says.

And because lobsters can be territorial, Jackie and Neptune will be kept in separate tanks that are also home to other sea creatures such as winter flounder and moon snails.

As nature's ambassadors, Jackie and Neptune are not just stars but possibly super agers. If they can avoid viruses and other ailments, lobsters can live to be 100, Munoz says.

"Our aquaria help bring the marine world to life for these students and connect them to the questions that Northeastern scientists are answering through their research," she says.