Monday, July 21, 2014

The Mantis Shrimp

       There are some pretty amazing things in this world, and they deserve a blog to tell about them.  One such thing is the mantis shrimp. This little guy has vision to make an eagle jealous,  claws that Bruce Lee might envy,  and a colorful body that very few birds can boast of.

       This foot-long creature (chew on that next time you go to subway!) lives on the ocean floor, where he spends most of his time in burrows.  He comes out on occasion to hunt,  and when he hunts, he terrorizes the whole ocean.  We'll get to that in a minute

       I found this mantis shrimp selfie on the net.  It looks like these guys have developed photography just as well as humans.



       These crustaceans are not real shrimp, but instead belong to a group of creatures called stomatopods.  Not much is known about these mysterious organisms, but that most of them are fierce predators, and they are related to crabs and shrimp.