A red pigment or protein found in the shells of crustaceans that gives them their characteristic color.
From crustacean (Latin crusta 'shell') combined with rubrum (Latin for 'red') and the suffix -in (indicating a chemical compound or protein). This describes the red-colored molecules in crustacean shells.
The bright red color you see in cooked lobsters and shrimp was hidden all along—their raw shells are actually brown or greenish because the crustaceorubrin is bound up in protein complexes that only turn vivid red when heat breaks them apart.
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