This is no simple shrimp. He is strong, he smashes crabs, he has captivating eyes, but we better not to mention the way he dresses…

Meet the Peacock Mantis Shrimp; aka "prawn killer" or "thumb splitter".

source

Why the names? Because they are highly aggressive crustaceans that use their claws in a way resembling to a praying mantis.

There are more than 400 species known, more than a half occur in Australia, while approximately 250 species you can meet at the Indo-West Pacific Region.

Mantis Shrimps may enjoy either a lonely life, or pair for life. They can live in crevices found on coral reefs, or they can be found living in depths of 1,5 kilometers (0.93 miles)

The size of the mantis shrimps can vary from 1 to 30 centimeters (0.4 to 12 inches)

Here’s a few things you should know, in order to understand how they live up to their reputation and justify all the titles 😊

First of all .. they are actually no shrimps, they belong to the stomatopods species.

The official name of the species we will explore today is Odontodactylus Scyllarus and he is also named peacock mantis shrimps, harlequin mantis shrimp, clown mantis shrimp 😯 (- Yes, really!)

Superpower #1: A fist that can kill

He has the title of the ‘ocean’s fiercest fighter’ and is renown for the "knock-out" punch that can crush any prey, even if they have hard shells.

Few years back, when a researcher at the USC Berkley wanted to study in video the punch of the mantis shrimp, she managed to capture the ‘smasher’s strike and estimated it at approximately 50mph, with a force of over 330 pounds, this means that if a person would have this strength, they would be able to break steel!

A research conducted by UCR (the University of California Riverside), reveals that the structure wrapped around the clubs of mantis shrimp protects them from self-inflicted damages. This could be the beginning of creating very strong new materials, for use in sports or even in aerospace.

“We believe the role of the fiber-reinforced striated region in the smasher's club is much like the hand wrap used by boxers when they fight: to compress the club and prevent catastrophic cracking,” David Kisailus, the Winston Chung Endowed Professor in Energy Innovation in UCR's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, said in a statement. “Together, the impact, periodic and striated regions form a club of incredible strength, durability and impact resistance.”

Superpower #2: The Unparalleled Vision of Mantis Shrimps

Not only does the mantis shrimp have the fastest movements in the world but they also hold the record for the most complex visual system!
Imagine that the human eyes have three photoreceptors and the colours we can see are red, blue and green. The Mantis Shrimps have up to 16 photoreceptors and the ability to see UV, Visible and polarized light.

They can also move each eye in a different way, which allows them to have a very large view.

Mantis Shrimps use visual signals in order to communicate with each other. They are known to use their behavior both for spawning reasons or aggressively between males. Little is known about the visual communication of the mantis shimps but researches have been trying to create behavioural experiments.

A group of scientists have used reversed engineering, in an attempt to use polarized light in order to diagnose injuries and disease. With the research of their extraordinary eyesight, it might be possible in the near future to detect cancer cells.

The astonishing mother nature comes once more to prove that we should have the greatest of respect of the creatures of our world. With careful examination, research, and conduction of ethical experiments, it is possible to discover life saving new features.

Let's hope that we can use any break-through discoveries wisely, for the good of mankind.

source: Encyclopedia Britannica
source: Australian Museum
source: The Conversation: Mantis Shrimp have the world’s best eyes, but why? By Mrs Amanda Franklin, PhD Candidate – Tufts University
Gallery by livescience.com

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