Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Animalius Stupendium. My name is Agromandanes, wizard to
Speaker 2: the Five Crowns? Who is it for now? Inventor of
Speaker 2: the magic missile, entireless creature chronicler. However, mere monsters hold
Speaker 2: no mystery for me these days. Dragons are drab, manticors
Speaker 2: are ne. Instead, I turn my attention once more to
Speaker 2: the strange fauna of a land called Earth. Travel with me,
Speaker 2: gentle reader, as we consider the mighty mantis shrimp.
Speaker 3: Common name mantis shrimp. Scientific classification, various species of the
Speaker 3: order Stomatopod, frequency and range, Indian and Pacific Ocean. Size,
Speaker 3: small diet, various gastroparts, crabs and mosques, treasure work eggs.
Speaker 3: Challenge rating eleven.
Speaker 2: How might I describe these tiny aquatic wonders so unlike
Speaker 2: the boring merfork and hippocampi i'd study previously. Most specimens
Speaker 2: are no longer than ten centimeters three point nine inches,
Speaker 2: or roughly two lengths of a wizard's finger. It is,
Speaker 2: of course, a burrow dwelling crustation with an elongated body,
Speaker 2: stoved eyes, slender legs, and long antennae. Its appearance compares
Speaker 2: favorably to other shrimp, though their front appendages resemble the
Speaker 2: raptorial legs of the also excellent terrestrial insect predator, the
Speaker 2: preying mantis its namesake ah. But the colors. The so
Speaker 2: called peacock mantistrimp, for example, is so named because it
Speaker 2: features bright shades of red, green, orange, and blue. Such
Speaker 2: a creature would not seem out of place in the
Speaker 2: chromatic realm, but its eyes are even more curious. What
Speaker 2: colors do they see? While human eyes have only three
Speaker 2: types of photoreceptor cells to process colors, mantishrimp boast between
Speaker 2: twelve and sixteen. This has led to much speculation on
Speaker 2: exactly what a mantishrimp sees when it beholds its aquatic world.
Speaker 2: Might it in fact glimpse colors beyond the realm of
Speaker 2: human senses. It's entirely possible, but researchers increasingly urge caution
Speaker 2: on grand generalizations about how and what these curious creatures see.
Speaker 2: Without access to a good polymorphs spell, human scientists are
Speaker 2: largely in the dark. Many mysteries remain. Certainly, mantishrimp may
Speaker 2: very well recognize subtle coloration differences in other mantishrimp predators
Speaker 2: or choral environments. It's also possible that color perception is
Speaker 2: just one part of an elaborate sensory network, and we
Speaker 2: do it a vast disservice to put too much emphasis
Speaker 2: on vision. Though this, of course is an understandable mistake
Speaker 2: given that we are such sight dependent creatures. Researchers point
Speaker 2: out that in experiments, some manti shrimps seem to depend
Speaker 2: more on shape than colorization in judging various targets in
Speaker 2: their environment. Still, what are those eyes capable of seeing?
Speaker 2: And how might we claim these powers for our own
Speaker 2: I have a notion in mind for a pair of
Speaker 2: magical goggles. But scientists have explored ways they might technologically
Speaker 2: mimic manta shrimp eyes to create improved optical sensors to
Speaker 2: do everything from improved cell phone cameras to aid doctors
Speaker 2: in the detection and removal of tumors. But let us
Speaker 2: consider the weaponry of the mantis shrimp. The mantis shrimp
Speaker 2: makes use of two attacks via its raptorial front appendages,
Speaker 2: but the type of damage depends on the species. Some
Speaker 2: mantis shrimp, including the peacock mantis shrimp pack a pair
Speaker 2: of dactile clubs which strike with bullet like speeds to
Speaker 2: kill or stung enemies by impact and or shock wave
Speaker 2: bludgeoning damage. This paunch is actually fast enough to produce
Speaker 2: superheated vapor bubbles in the surrounding waters, and these cavitation
Speaker 2: forces may apply additional damage. The majority of mantis shrimp, however,
Speaker 2: have barred frontal appendages to pierce their prey at lower
Speaker 2: attack speeds, while the clubbing mantis shrimp depend on a
Speaker 2: spring loaded mechanism. Spearing mantis shrimp are di I did
Speaker 2: between spring loaded stabbers and active muscle movement stabbers. In
Speaker 2: either case, the stab happy mantis shrimp varieties ambush their
Speaker 2: prey from cover, while clubbers launch more of a full
Speaker 2: frontal assault. There are more mysteries concerning the mantis shrimp
Speaker 2: to consider, but for now I must retire my wizard's
Speaker 2: quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall
Speaker 2: return with even more wonders of the natural world.
Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 4: This is Robert Lamb. Thanks to the Wizard Acromandanese for
Speaker 4: joining us in this episode. Sources for this episode included
Speaker 4: the National Aquarium, the Great barrier refoundation. Michael Irvings How
Speaker 4: the Deadly mantis shrimp keeps cracks in its club in
Speaker 4: Czech published on New Atlas in twenty eighteen. Jessica Morrison's
Speaker 4: Mantis shrimps supercolor vision debunked, published in Nature twenty fourteen,
Speaker 4: Chroninetol's color vision in stomatopodcrustaceans published in Philosophical Transactions of
Speaker 4: the Royal Society b twenty twenty two. And patel at
Speaker 4: All's Mantis shrimp identify an object by its shape rather
Speaker 4: than its color during visual recognition, published in the Journal
Speaker 4: of Experimental Biology twenty twenty one. Thanks as always to
Speaker 4: the excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode. If you
Speaker 4: wish to contact Agromandanes with recommendations for future episodes, you
Speaker 4: can send an email to contact at stuff Blow your
Speaker 4: Mind dot com.
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