Is the mantis shrimp in your mouth actually a "martial arts master"?

When it comes to mantis shrimp, many people will associate it with food. However, today we are going to talk about the completely different side of mantis shrimp. Did you know that the mantis shrimp, which looks ordinary in appearance, actually has the peerless martial arts of a martial arts master, the fiery eyes of Sun Wukong, and the special abilities of an alien? In addition, their origins are still a mystery...

The mantis shrimp's catching legs evolved from the oral appendages (maxillopods)

Now, let us walk into the magical world of mantis shrimp together.

Mantis shrimp is not a shrimp

First of all, let us clarify one fact: Mantis shrimp is not actually shrimp.

The scientific name of mantis shrimp is Mantis shrimp, which belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, class Soft Armor, order Stomatopoda, and there are more than 400 species in the world. Shrimp, like crabs, belongs to the order Decapoda. The biggest difference between the order Stomatopoda and the order Decapoda is that the powerful catching feet (also called raptor feet) of mantis shrimp evolved from the oral appendages (maxilla feet), while the claws of shrimp and crab evolved from the cephalothorax appendages (walking feet). In addition, from the appearance, the head of mantis shrimp is relatively independent, while the head and chest of shrimp are connected. Therefore, mantis shrimp and shrimp are not the same thing.

Next, let’s take a look at the magical abilities of mantis shrimp.

The mantis shrimp's deadly weapon

The catching feet are weapons that mantis shrimps use specifically for attacking, and they are only used for attacking and have no other uses. This is completely different from shrimp claws and crab claws. This shows that stomatopods attach great importance to hunting and have extremely strong predatory nature.

The mantis's catching legs are the opposite of the mantis's catching legs, forming a "Z" shape.

The catching legs of mantis shrimp are divided into two categories: piercing and hammering. The catching legs of mantis shrimp that we often see in seafood markets are piercing, and they look like an inverted mantis arm, with many sharp serrations at the end, which are convenient for piercing and grabbing fish and shrimp. The catching legs of the superstar and heavyweight boxing champion in the documentary, the mantis shrimp, are a pair of "meteor hammers" that are specially used to break the hard shells of prey such as shellfish and crabs.

The piercing mantis shrimp hunts

The "bolas" of the hammer-striking mantis shrimp

How powerful is the mantis shrimp's catching foot? An experiment abroad showed that mantis shrimp can accelerate its catching foot from rest to 80 kilometers per hour in one-thousandth of a second, which is equivalent to the acceleration of a bullet leaving the barrel. In terms of strength, the maximum attack force of the mantis shrimp in the laboratory is about 150 kilograms, which can crack the reinforced glass aquarium. The diameter of the mantis shrimp's "fist" that can hit with such force is only 7 mm. It can be said that in terms of speed, power, and strength, the mantis shrimp's catching foot has reached the limit level in the animal kingdom.

In addition, there are even more amazing things. Because the energy released by mantis shrimp during the attack is too high, we can see the physical wonders that occur in the moment of mantis shrimp attack in slow motion: with the loud noise made by the mantis shrimp "punching" the prey, a dazzling flash like lightning appears around the mantis shrimp's catching foot. This is the so-called "sonoluminescence". How does this phenomenon happen? The reason is that the huge kinetic energy released by the mantis shrimp's attack is instantly converted into internal energy, vaporizing (boiling) the water on the impact interface to form a cavity, which then collapses rapidly, releasing a large amount of energy, and part of the energy is lost in the form of light energy in this process, forming a flash. This super-strong attack can make the surface of the prey instantly reach or even exceed the temperature of the sun's surface! The collapse of the bubble will bring a second blow to the prey, and this time the blow can also reach more than 100 kilograms!

Sonoluminescence: The physical wonder produced by the attack of mantis shrimp's catching feet

What makes the mantis shrimp's catching foot so powerful? The answer is "saddle-shaped hyperboloid" - the muscle drive system of the mantis shrimp's catching foot is connected to a small saddle-shaped elastic hard plate, which is like a spring. When the mantis shrimp is ready to attack, it will be extremely compressed, and then suddenly released, ejecting the catching foot with super high acceleration, just like people use bows and arrows.

Another important question is how do mantis shrimps stay intact when they deliver such a powerful punch? You know, such a strong attack force will also react on itself while attacking the opponent, but mantis shrimps are unscathed. The reason for this is still undetermined in the scientific community. One view is that the surface structure of the mantis shrimp's catching foot is similar to a saddle, which gives it strong mechanical strength, and the layers of organic nanomaterials on the surface enable it to quickly absorb and guide energy.

The Fiery Eyes of Mantis Shrimp

The mantis shrimp can become the most powerful hunter among the soft armor classes. In addition to its powerful attack system, its powerful visual system also plays an important role.

First of all, mantis shrimp is the animal that can see the most colors in the world. Animals and humans perceive colors through cones. Humans have three types of cones that can perceive the three primary colors of red, green, and blue. Then the human brain will indirectly perceive the proportion of the three primary colors in the light according to the strength of the information transmitted by different types of cones, and thus calculate the mixed colorful colors. The cones of mantis shrimp have reached the pinnacle of the animal kingdom - 16 types! It is hard to imagine what kind of world mantis shrimp sees!

The most powerful eyes in the animal kingdom - mantis shrimp compound eyes

The magic of mantis shrimp's eyes also lies in its ability to perceive polarized light. Polarized light is a form of light wave, relative to natural light. Simply put, the vibration direction of natural light includes all directions perpendicular to the propagation direction of the light wave, has axial symmetry and is evenly distributed, so it is not polarized, while the vibration direction of polarized light is specific and asymmetric. Humans and most animals cannot see polarized light directly, but mantis shrimp can. Among the 16 types of cones in mantis shrimp, several are specifically used to perceive polarized light. This means that mantis shrimp's eyes can easily see through the camouflage of prey like Sun Wukong's fiery eyes. Because the propagation mode of polarized light on specific substances is specific, it is not easily disturbed by multiple factors like natural light and produces illusions. Therefore, mantis shrimp can find and identify prey more accurately and effectively, which is also an important reason why mantis shrimp can hunt almost "100% accurate".

In addition, the mantis shrimp's two eyes can move independently and look in two different directions at the same time, just like chameleons, which gives them a wider field of view and better visual flexibility.

It can be said that as the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom, the eyes of mantis shrimp have overturned all biologists' views on the compound eyes of "lower animals" - arthropods.

The mantis shrimp's intelligent brain

Although the brains of most arthropods are underdeveloped and simple in structure, there are a few exceptions, such as the arachnids (especially members of the genus Aspergillus in the family Salticidae) and the mantis shrimp mentioned in this article, which all have very powerful brains.

Animal behaviorists have long noticed a strange phenomenon: mantis shrimps living in areas with abundant coral reefs, seaweed, and waste, such as the coast of California, often hunt far away from their caves and then return home without any detours. At first, scientists simply attributed it to the powerful eyes of mantis shrimps, believing that they, like bees, also use the sun for polarization navigation. However, further experiments found that the reason is not so simple, because even at a depth of about 60 meters, where the sun cannot be seen, or in the laboratory, when traveling at night, mantis shrimps can accurately locate. These research results show that mantis shrimps do not rely entirely on the polarization of the sun for navigation, but do have a strong sense of space, and seem to be able to connect the surrounding environment with the geographical location, forming a map in the brain, just like a carrier pigeon for navigation.

In addition to being able to "walk through a maze", the mantis shrimp's brain also has strong learning and analytical abilities. For example, after long-term practice and learning, the efficiency of breaking shells will be greatly improved because it has found the most vulnerable mechanical position of the shell. A more classic study abroad shows that mantis shrimp has a strong ability to identify and distinguish between enemies and difficult prey. Studies have shown that if mantis shrimp finds that an ordinary small octopus passes through its territory, it will not necessarily attack if it is not hungry. However, if they find that a highly toxic and dangerous blue-ringed octopus has entered its territory, they will immediately launch a fierce attack and will not stop until the blue-ringed octopus is beaten to death. Mantis shrimp also seems to realize the truth that "attack is the best defense." Moreover, each peacock mantis shrimp has its own set of unique skills, such as a "heavy punch" surprise attack plus a rapid retreat, or a "chain punch" plus a "bayonet" at a critical moment-unfolding the first section of the jaws to stab, etc. Therefore, don't underestimate mantis shrimp, they are animals that can think.

In addition, the mantis shrimp's brain also has a strong language communication ability. In 2004, researchers detected a large number of mantis shrimp communication audios on the seabed of California, the complexity of which is comparable to that of humans and dolphins. Later, people discovered that mantis shrimp have an extremely amazing ability: by controlling the polarized light and other light waves reflected by the nanomaterials on the exoskeleton (especially the pair of fan-shaped appendages on the head), they can communicate in "light language", which makes people think of the communication method of aliens in science fiction movies.

The Evolution of Mantis Shrimp

Judging from the mantis shrimp fossils discovered so far, mantis shrimp have existed on Earth at least 200 million years ago during the Jurassic period, so mantis shrimp are also called "living fossils of marine life." However, the most puzzling thing is that there is almost no difference between the mantis shrimp at that time and the mantis shrimp today. In other words, mantis shrimp were already "high-tech" in the ancient times 200 million years ago, and their evolution level far exceeded that of other animals of the same period.

The most amazing thing is that scientists have not been able to find a reasonable evolutionary route for mantis shrimp from the perspective of fossils or molecular biology. If humans are a species that evolved from primitive primates after a long period of evolution, then mantis shrimp are the soft armor "Sun Wukong" that jumped out of a stone and reached the pinnacle in one leap. At least this is the only way to understand it now, because it is difficult to find a "worthy" ancestor for them. They evolved too quickly and too perfectly, which can be called a miracle in the history of evolution.

Wild mantis shrimp in dire straits

In the process of studying mantis shrimp, I also tried to raise some mantis shrimp for observation. I used high-quality coral salt, a well-equipped aquarium, and various professional aquarium drugs to build a small seawater tank, and used a precision salinity meter and pH tester to adjust the salinity and pH of the water to the most suitable range for mantis shrimp survival. Then, I selected 3 mantis shrimp in good condition from the seafood market and transferred them into the tank using the most stringent bubble bag method. The result failed. The 3 mantis shrimp died one after another after persisting for about 3 weeks.

What is the reason that mantis shrimp, which originally had strong vitality and adaptability, could not survive under suitable living conditions? Later, I saw a program on CCTV's agricultural column "Science and Technology Garden" that specifically introduced mantis shrimp, and then I suddenly realized it. It turns out that because the technology of artificially breeding mantis shrimp is not yet mature, most of the mantis shrimp on the market are wild mantis shrimp caught in coastal areas, and these mantis shrimp need to be transported long distances to reach the inland. In order to facilitate transportation and increase survival rates, fishermen will freeze these mantis shrimp in advance to reduce their vitality, or even anesthetize them, so that their metabolism slows down and stress is reduced, and then they are warmed up and revived after arriving at their destination. This rough method caused irreversible and huge damage to the mantis shrimp, making it unable to adapt to the environment, stop hunting and eventually die.

Bottom trawling destroys coastal ecosystems

More worryingly, because mantis shrimp are bottom-dwelling creatures, people have been relying on bottom trawls to catch them in the wild. Bottom trawls are nets that drag along the seafloor like shovels to catch animals hiding in the mud and sand. They can fundamentally destroy the near-shore ecosystem, destroy the growth of marine plants, and catch all kinds of bottom-dwelling aquatic animals.

Therefore, the protection of wild mantis shrimp and marine ecology is imminent. I hope that more people will reduce their consumption of wild mantis shrimp after understanding their magic. I believe that with everyone's joint efforts, we will not regret eating less delicious food, but will feel extremely proud of saving a miracle in the history of biological evolution and continuing the history of a species!

Text/Xu Juncheng Picture/Internet