Mantis Shrimp (Order: Stomatopoda)
Today I’m looking at the mantis shrimp, which, funnily enough, is neither a mantis or a shrimp, but has just been coined the name because I guess you could say it looks like a hybrid of both. Manimp. Shrantis. Nope. I’ll stop.
So looking at the image, one could assume that these guys aren’t too big, and a little bit cute, right? Wrong. They can grow to around 30cm (12in) in length and they have nifty (my other word for ‘dangerous as shit’) claws that they use to attack/dismember their prey, cut people who try and handle them, and occasionally have been known to break through aquarium glass…Still cute, but not exactly bedtime story material. Their colours can range from shades of browns to neons as in the image above.
Most species of the mantis shrimp (of which there are around 400 known) live in tropical or subtropical seas, with a few spreading their segments and living it up in temperate seas. They tend to be solitary (so don’t feel bad if you see one without any fraaaands) and somewhat aggressive, and spend a fair amount of time hiding in rock formations or digging burrows in the substratum.
Two of the most interesting things about these samurais of the sea are their claws and their eyes.
They’re commonly separated into two groups depending on what type of claws they have; spearers or smashers. I think the very basic differences between the two are somewhat self explanatory, so I’ll get onto the exciting business of the eyes.
The eyes of the mantis shrimp are thought to be some of the most complex in the animal kingdom. Quite a title to hold when you think about it. Basically, their eyes are so well developed that they actually have the ability to perceive polarized light and hyperspectral colour vision (totally boss). Both eyes are mounted on stalks and move independently of one another, with movement being unusually free in all possible axes.
There is so much more detail about these eyes, and mantis shrimp in general really, that would take me too long to go into, so if you’re interested just check out here or just do some searching to learn all about the weird wonders of the delightful mantis shrimp.Basically, this is the coolest sea creature. It can see colors we can’t even perceive.
