The peacock mantis shrimp is a crustacean with super powers. It uses clubs instead of claws for feeding and prefers crustaceans and bivalves.
When it hunts it will repeatedly deliver enormous force to the shell of its prey with its claws until it can gain access to the underlying soft tissue and will feed on it.
It is reported to have a “punch” of over 80 km/h, the fastest recorded punch of any living animal. The acceleration is similar to that in a 22. long rifle bullet fired from a handgun. The speed of this strike causes cavitation bubbles to form. When those bubbles pop they release a large amount of heat (temporarily getting close to the temperature at the surface of the sun) and further weakening the armor of their prey. In addition, the surface of its hammer-claw is made up of an extremely dense material, a ceramic material which is laminated in a manner which is highly resistant to fracturing and can break ordinary glass tanks/aquariums.
But this is not the end of the story. They also hold the world record for the most complex visual system. They have up to 16 photoreceptors and can see UV, visible and polarised light. Humans can process three channels of colour (red, green and blue). In fact, peacock mantis shrimp are the only animals known to detect circularly polarised light, which is when the wave component of light rotates in a circular motion. They also can perceive depth with one eye and move each eye independently. It’s impossible to imagine what mantis shrimp see, but incredible to think about.
