Useless Information: Mantis Shrimp

[W0NWILL]

Now, all you folks may be wondering, 'Won, why make a whole topic devoted to a shrimp?'

If that's all you thought and only clicked on this topic 'cause you were bored, tighten some loose bolts in your brain.

Let me start a bit earlier, with something most of you should know. Our eyes contain millions of light-sensitive cells, rods, and cones. Rods enable you to see light and movement, while cones enable you to see colour. Here, we're going to focus on the cones.

Dog eyes have two different cones, blue and green. This lets them see blue, green, and yellow.
Humans have three, blue, green, and red. This lets us see all the colours made from a mixture of those three.
Butterflies have five, blue, green, red, and two others that in our wildest dreams we cannot imagine.

Mantis Shrimps have sixteen.

Not joking.

Lets take our rainbow, Roy G. Biv, or however you choose to remember. That's what we see with three things. Now imagine a bunch of colours mixed in made out of colours our brains are not capable of processing.

And then soak that rainbow in blood.

Despite being so pretty to look at, Mantis Shrimps are the deadliest shrimps in the world. It has two 'scythes-that-are-deadlier-than-the-Grim-Reaper's' on the front of its body. These appendages of death can accelerate with the same velocity as a twenty-two caliber rifle, and in less than three thousandths of a second, it can strike its victims with 1,500 newtons of force.

If a human being could accelerate their arms at 1/10 of that speed, they could throw a baseball into orbit.

A Mantis Shrimp's limbs can move so quickly the water around them boils. This is a process known as supercaviation. When the bubbles pop they produce a shockwave that can kill prey even if it misses. And they also produce little bursts of light when they pop. This is called sololumiensence. Their skin is so tough that their cell structure is being studied for body armor for advanced combat troops.

However, with all this death it brings, the Mantis Shrimp is beautiful.

See?

[close]

Still, never forget that it can and will kill you.

Start running.

[Shadowed One]

Where do they live?

[Rainshadow]

  I...  Um...  How big are they?

[Ungatt Trunn]

Di-did you say shr-r-rimp??

[Shadowed One]

I like eating shrimp, not getting killed by them!

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Fazcinatin'!

[Redwaller]

  I...  Um...  How big are they?

About as big as a goat! (JK) it's bigger than a usual shrimp, I think about the size of a crab or lobster.

I once saw a documentary with one of those in it. DEADLY! The sound it makes is outstanding!

[Kitsune]

Wow. Truly an example of something that's frightening and beautiful.

[Ungatt Trunn]

D-d-did y-y-ou s-say....SHRIMP!???