Mantis shrimp | Stomatopoda | Not a shrimp

 There are about 2000 different species of shrimps around the world. Each one has a special adaptation, bio - luminescence, special fighting weapons like that of pistol shrimp and the big claws, color changers etc. They come in all colors and sizes from about 6mm - more 20cm (though rarely).

Their body colors are caused by pigments. (Carotenoids; mostly astaxanthin). They are pale or concentrated depending upon their environments, factor like : - 

• Stress
• Photoperiods or intensity of light and amount of light experienced
• Food
• Genetics
• Temperature

affect the shades and colors of the shrimps. The exoskeleton and their epidermis layers have cells that have special pigments contained in a bag, when expanded gives color to the whole cell and when crushed cannot even be noticed by color. Thus by overtime change in food, temperature and maturity etc affects the concentration and shades of the shrimp body's color. This change is not under conscious control though, just on environmental factors. 

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is one of the bewildering animals but not a real shrimp (closely related enough). It has the strongest punch (per it's weight) in the natural world. The mantis shrimp's visual system is unique in the animal kingdom. Mantis shrimps have compound eyes made up of 10,000 small photoreceptive units. Humans have eyes packed with rod cells of three colors - thus trichromatic vision. Some birds even have penta-chromatic vision. Mantis shrimps on the other hand have about 12 to 16 types of color sensitive rod cells. Each eye has it's own depth perception and works independently from the other. It has one of the most sophisticated vision/ Photoreception. It's know for it's speed and agility.

They see infrared and ultraviolet and other parts of the spectrum of the EMR. Humans are tri-chromatic and can identify around 1 million colors and think about mantis shrimp which has 12 to 16 different cone cells (responsible for color vision). They can also see polarized light. They the most tough exoskeleton and claws. Their punches are the fastest in the known animal kingdom, 50mph. Causing pain as much as an Asian lion's bite force. They use these claws to break apart the shell from the animal to eat them (mostly molluscs). These punches create cavitation, shock waves under water and the water for some micro seconds or even smaller units get heated to the surface temperature of the sun (very similar to the Pistol shrimps).

These punches are made by the use of tension. with the help of saddle, rotating joint, Flexors and extensor muscles, a latch system, a spring and all work together to create a crazy acceleration and damage (in water !! despite the drag).

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J. Maanavendra roy,
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