Today I will be talking about the Peacock Mantis Shrimp! There is, believe it or not, over 400 different species of Mantis Shrimp! These small crustaceans (not actually shrimp) can grow to ~7 inches long and love to hide out in crevices on the seafloor of the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are arguably one of the most captivating and impressive animals in the sea! Do you know what makes them so infamous? They posses two club like arms that can move 50x faster than the blink of an eye and can deliver a punch equivalent to the force exerted by a bullet! They use this incredible skill to hunt for crabs and mollusks to eat, as well as defending themselves from predators! Now if that didn’t make them impressive enough, their eyes are the most complex of ANY animal! Human eyes have 3 types of color receptive cones, red blue and green, whereas Mantis Shrimp have 16 and can detect ultraviolet light! That mid-band you see across their eye is where these photoreceptors are held. They can also move their eyes independently of one another! There is no knowledge of their conservation status, and not many things are known to be a threat to them! But how incredible are these little guys! God made so many unique creatures and each are worth caring about! And their home, the ocean, is equally as important of protecting! For those of you who read these posts in their entirety, hats off to you and thank you for your support and interest in learning something new!
Originally posted on 31 March 2019
(not my pictures)
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