A side view of the Peacock Mantis Shrimp.  Courtesy of Roy L. Caldwell

 

You Won't Believe it

Fun Facts about the peacock mantis shrimp that I bet you didn't know.

-A peacock mantis shrimp is actually not a true shrimp but a separate family called stomatopods.

-Mantis shrimp linage dates back five hundred million years.

-Over 400 species of mantis shrimp known worldwide.

-A strike from the mantis shrimp is 50 times faster then the blink of a human eye. 



-Peacock mantis shrimp can punch with speed equal to a .22 caliber bullet. 


-It is able to see ten times more color than human beings.

Close up view of a peacock mantis shrimp and its amazing color, eyes, and appendages.  Copyright of Roy L. Caldwell
To see to a wide variety of Roy L. Caldwell research on various organisms visit his research page here.

-They also have binocular vision giving some amazing depth perception.  They can also see in four different colors of ultraviolet light (National Aquarium 2014).

-Just like the Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) which has the strongest jaws, the peacock mantis shrimp has the strongest and fastest strike of any animal of its size.

-The strike is so fast that it can vaporize water, causing an implosion.

-Peacock mantis shirmp are the only predators of the blue-ring optopus.
(Seahorse 2014)

-Divers in Austrailia refer to this creature as "thumb splitters" because of the massive force behind its appendages attack.

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