Eye-Popping Facts About The Colorful Mantis Shrimp

Beautiful and dangerous aren’t typically two words that you see attached to shrimp, but it appears one species has been learning from the weird and wonderful things under the water. The mantis shrimp truly is in a class of its own, earning a reputation as one of the most fearsome underwater creatures of all time.

While there is still a lot to learn about what lives beneath the surface, the eye-popping facts about the colorful mantis shrimp go to show just how wonderful some of the better-known creatures are - even if they are designed to take down anything in one quick swipe.

Mantis shrimp aren’t actually a species of shrimp

They might be called mantis shrimp, but one thing plenty of people don’t know is they’re not actually a type of shrimp. They’re not even a type of underwater mantises, an order of insects. Instead, mantis shrimp are a type of stomatopod, meaning they are distantly related to lobsters, shrimp, and crabs. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s believed there are at least 550 different species of mantis shrimp, with each usually classified by how they end their prey’s life, such as spearing or smashing.

They are even older than dinosaurs

It’s perhaps no secret that some animals have been around for thousands of years, but what about hundreds of thousands? What about millions? That’s right; stomatopods started evolving away from other crustaceans about 400 million years ago, meaning the branch happened approximately 170 million years before the first dinosaurs arrived. Ever since, they have spent years following their own evolutionary lineage, resulting in some of the most unusual animals on the planet. In fact, many scientists refer to mantis shrimp as “shrimp from Mars,” thanks to their strange appearance and behaviors.

Mantis shrimp have an incredible punch

The thing that makes mantis shrimp stand out above the rest is their incredible punch. The peacock mantis shrimp has the strongest of them all, using two appendages - their dactyl clubs - to reduce prey to nothing. In fact, their fists reach speeds of up to 50 mph, can split fingers down to the bone, and move fast enough to boil water. Amazingly, the water around the punch briefly reaches the incredible temperatures of the surface of the sun, with the hit delivering 160 pounds of force to their prey. Almost nothing can stand in this little guy’s way, even hard-shelled crabs and lobsters.

Their vision is unlike anything else on the planet

Their punches aren’t the only thing that makes the mantis shrimp stand out, with the peacock mantis shrimp having the most impressive eyesight of any creatures in the world. They have 12 photoreceptors which mean they can sense different types of color. In contrast, humans tend to have three. That means mantis shrimp see the world in an incredible range of rainbow colors, with their eyes working more like satellites than anything else. It’s believed they can take in an astonishing amount of information without having to process things in their brains, allowing mantis shrimp to react faster than most things to the world around them.

Mantis shrimp have their own secret language

It turns out their eyesight isn’t just there to help the mantis shrimp survive and thrive in the water around them. It’s also enough to allow them to see polarized light, meaning they have a secret language they use among themselves. That’s because the Haptosquilla trispinosa species uses maxillipeds - feathery feeding appendages - that are marked with iridescent blue dots. These reflect light unlike anything else as they distribute light across the surface of the dot. The way mantis shrimp see light means they can pick up these impressive displays, while other creatures have no idea they are there, meaning they can communicate in plain sight.

They pick one partner for life

Just because they are some of the most dangerous creatures in the world doesn’t mean that it’s all about ending lives and rising to the top for the mantis shrimp. It turns out they actually practice social monogamy, something that is rarely seen in the animal kingdom, let alone among crustaceans. This seems mantis shrimp pick one partner for life, as the pair raise their young and share food and shelter. However, it’s not all that romantic. Mantis shrimp tend to live outside reefs instead of in among the action, which would see them have to travel through dangerous waters to find a new mate each time. This way, mantis shrimp can remain in the comfort of their own homes as they enjoy a relatively secluded life together.

The eye-popping facts about the colorful mantis shrimp prove just how incredible these underwater additions are - even if they aren’t a type of shrimp, after all. They might be small, but we should never underestimate the power of a mantis shrimp.