The Snail-Smashing, Fish-Spearing, Eye-Popping Mantis Shrimp | Deep Look

Deep Look
Deep Look
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Published 2016-11-15
The killer punch of the mantis shrimp is the fastest strike in the animal kingdom, a skill that goes hand in hand with its extraordinary eyesight. They can see an invisible level of reality using polarized light, which could lead to a breakthrough in detecting cancer.

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Aggressive, reef-dwelling mantis shrimp take more than one first-place ribbon in the animal kingdom. Outwardly resembling their lobster cousins, their colorful shells contain an impressive set of superpowers.

There are two types of mantis shrimp, named for their attack mode while hunting prey: smashers and spearers. With their spring-loaded, weaponized legs, these predators can crack a snail shell or harpoon a passing fish in a single punch.

The speed of these attacks has earned the mantis shrimp one of their world records: fastest strike in the animal kingdom.

Scientists are finding that another of their special abilities -- incredible eyesight -- has potential life-saving implications for people with cancer.

Mantis shrimp can perceive the most elusive attribute of light from the human standpoint: polarization. Polarization refers to the angle that light travels through space. Though it’s invisible to the human eye, many animals see this quality of light, especially underwater.

But mantis shrimp can see a special kind of polarization, called circular polarization. Scientists have found that some mantis shrimp species use circular polarization to communicate with each other on a kind of secret visual channel for mating and territorial purposes.

Inspired by the mantis shrimp’s superlative eyesight, a group of researchers is collaborating to build polarization cameras that would constitute a giant leap for early cancer detection. These cameras see otherwise invisible cancerous tissues by detecting their polarization signature, which is different between diseased and healthy tissues.

--- How fast is the mantis shrimp punch?

Their strike is about as fast as a .22 caliber rifle bullet. It’s been measured at 50mph.

--- What do mantis shrimp eat?

The “smasher” mantis shrimp eat hard-shelled creatures like snails and crabs. The “spearers” grab fish, worms, seahorses, and other soft-bodied prey by impaling them.

--- Where do mantis shrimp live?

In reefs, from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of Australia, and throughout Indonesia. A few species are scattered around the globe, including two in California.

---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science:

ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/11/15/the-snail-smashing…

---+ For more information:

Caldwell Lab at U.C. Berkeley: ib.berkeley.edu/labs/caldwell/

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All Comments (20)
  • @pdthorn
    Came for the cool mantis shrimp facts, was blown away about polarized light
  • @theSUICIDEfox
    Even with hexnocular vision, the mantis shrimp still can't see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
  • @NewMessage
    Had one of those little thumb splitters in my reef tank and it eventually managed to kill all the fish.. one by one.. then crack the glass. Amazing little buggers.
  • @DrawCuriosity
    Hands down the best mantis shrimp video out there - a perfect, simple and understandable explanation of how their circularised polarised vision detection works and what that means. :) In addition to their epic eyesight and speed, their telsons (the shell on their back) is incredibly strong and engineered in such a way to protect them from the blows of other mantis shrimps (as they tend to crack each other blows there). Their microstructures are fascinating, and have great ways of preventing cracks from forming and propagating, which means that they also have one of the most resistant carapaces out of the animal kingdom. One more way they are epically cool. :)
  • @KQEDDeepLook
    Hi all...I'm the producer of this episode of Deep Look, Elliott. We've been in the field the last two days on the next awesome show, but I'll be answering your questions soon.... Keep em coming! Thanks for watching, BAM! —EK
  • @Triniswe
    The mantis shrimp might have the stongest Punch, but Deep Look got their Punchline.
  • @usern4me0
    I was on a field trip and picked one of these up not knowing what it was, when the guy in charge saw he screamed and slapped it out of my hand haha
  • @HanibiSW
    I thought I've seen all there is on mantis shrimps from the other videos, but as it turns out there is far far far more to the mantis shrimp than only its punches. Firstly a SPEAR MANTIS holy hell that's cool and then polaroid eyesight! No one looks into things like Deep Look no doubt.
  • @kennethstudstill
    1:07 I'm worried that some people might misunderstand this analogy. The black spots are just where the mantis shrimp's eye takes light in from the direction of the observer. The mantis shrimp doesn't track objects using its black spots. All facets of each compound eye take in light simultaneously from their respective directions. The black spots would simultaneously be in different places to different observers.
  • @jaredmitchell1302
    1:48 man I thought I would see Joseph Smith come walking in frame. Brought back some bad memories.
  • @GarretHandel
    The mantis shrimp has been one of my favorite creatures on this planet for a long time, but it just rose to #1 after watching this video! I had no idea that there are spearing mantis shrimp, nor did I know about the polarization detection. So cool!!!
  • @nvrumi
    Hexnocular vision.... Yep, that's what Amy said...