Animalia Stupendium: The Mantis Shrimp

Bored with dragons, the wizard Argomandanies turns his arcane attention to the fantastic fauna of the natural world. Welcome to Animalia Stupendium, a chronicle of Earth’s amazing biodiversity with all the enthusiasm of a fantasy monster book. In this episode, the wizard will consider the mighty mantis shrimp! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to Animalius Stupendium. My name is Agromandanes, wizard to
the Five Crowns? Who is it for now? Inventor of
the magic missile, entireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold
no mystery for me these days. Dragons are drab, manticors

(00:32):
are ne. Instead, I turn my attention once more to
the strange fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me,
gentle reader, as we consider the mighty mantis shrimp.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Common name mantis shrimp. Scientific classification, various species of the
order Stomatopod, frequency and range, Indian and Pacific Ocean. Size,
small diet, various gastroparts, crabs and mosques, treasure work eggs.

(01:08):
Challenge rating eleven.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
How might I describe these tiny aquatic wonders so unlike
the boring merfork and hippocampi i'd study previously. Most specimens
are no longer than ten centimeters three point nine inches,
or roughly two lengths of a wizard's finger. It is,
of course, a burrow dwelling crustation with an elongated body,

(01:33):
stoved eyes, slender legs, and long antennae. Its appearance compares
favorably to other shrimp, though their front appendages resemble the
raptorial legs of the also excellent terrestrial insect predator, the
preying mantis its namesake ah. But the colors. The so
called peacock mantistrimp, for example, is so named because it

(01:57):
features bright shades of red, green, orange, and blue. Such
a creature would not seem out of place in the
chromatic realm, but its eyes are even more curious. What
colors do they see? While human eyes have only three
types of photoreceptor cells to process colors, mantishrimp boast between

(02:18):
twelve and sixteen. This has led to much speculation on
exactly what a mantishrimp sees when it beholds its aquatic world.
Might it in fact glimpse colors beyond the realm of
human senses. It's entirely possible, but researchers increasingly urge caution
on grand generalizations about how and what these curious creatures see.

(02:44):
Without access to a good polymorphs spell, human scientists are
largely in the dark. Many mysteries remain. Certainly, mantishrimp may
very well recognize subtle coloration differences in other mantishrimp predators
or choral environments. It's also possible that color perception is

(03:04):
just one part of an elaborate sensory network, and we
do it a vast disservice to put too much emphasis
on vision. Though this, of course is an understandable mistake
given that we are such sight dependent creatures. Researchers point
out that in experiments, some manti shrimps seem to depend

(03:24):
more on shape than colorization in judging various targets in
their environment. Still, what are those eyes capable of seeing?
And how might we claim these powers for our own
I have a notion in mind for a pair of
magical goggles. But scientists have explored ways they might technologically

(03:47):
mimic manta shrimp eyes to create improved optical sensors to
do everything from improved cell phone cameras to aid doctors
in the detection and removal of tumors. But let us
consider the weaponry of the mantis shrimp. The mantis shrimp

(04:08):
makes use of two attacks via its raptorial front appendages,
but the type of damage depends on the species. Some
mantis shrimp, including the peacock mantis shrimp pack a pair
of dactile clubs which strike with bullet like speeds to
kill or stung enemies by impact and or shock wave

(04:30):
bludgeoning damage. This paunch is actually fast enough to produce
superheated vapor bubbles in the surrounding waters, and these cavitation
forces may apply additional damage. The majority of mantis shrimp, however,
have barred frontal appendages to pierce their prey at lower

(04:52):
attack speeds, while the clubbing mantis shrimp depend on a
spring loaded mechanism. Spearing mantis shrimp are di I did
between spring loaded stabbers and active muscle movement stabbers. In
either case, the stab happy mantis shrimp varieties ambush their
prey from cover, while clubbers launch more of a full

(05:15):
frontal assault. There are more mysteries concerning the mantis shrimp
to consider, but for now I must retire my wizard's
quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall
return with even more wonders of the natural world.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
Hi.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
This is Robert Lamb. Thanks to the Wizard Acromandanese for
joining us in this episode. Sources for this episode included
the National Aquarium, the Great barrier refoundation. Michael Irvings How
the Deadly mantis shrimp keeps cracks in its club in
Czech published on New Atlas in twenty eighteen. Jessica Morrison's

(05:59):
Mantis shrimps supercolor vision debunked, published in Nature twenty fourteen,
Chroninetol's color vision in stomatopodcrustaceans published in Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society b twenty twenty two. And patel at
All's Mantis shrimp identify an object by its shape rather
than its color during visual recognition, published in the Journal

(06:19):
of Experimental Biology twenty twenty one. Thanks as always to
the excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode. If you
wish to contact Agromandanes with recommendations for future episodes, you
can send an email to contact at stuff Blow your
Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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