^excellent actually! Like pre-buttered lobster.

..or, if you are wondering about their chemosensory abilities, those are excellent as well. Mantis shrimp can actually
identify the specific 'odor' of other individual mantis shrimp . They are aversive in the presence of the odor of animals to which they have lost conflicts, and bold in the presence of the odor of an individual they have defeated in the past.

>> ^Throbbin:
I could take it.


Actually, I'm not so sure. You see that other video where the Mantis Shrimp goes for the fiddler crab and the first thing he does is BANG: big claw amputated?

I'm thinking if this thing has strategies for humans, it's going for the nutsack first.

Even though the punch of the Mantis Shrimp is very impressive and most talked about, I think its eyes are most impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp#The_eyes
Mantis shrimp possess hyperspectral colour vision, allowing up to 12 colour channels extending in the ultraviolet. Their eyes (both mounted on mobile stalks and constantly moving about independently of each other) are similarly variably coloured, and are considered to be the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. They permit both serial and parallel analysis of visual stimuli.

Rows 1-4 of the midband are specialised for colour vision, from ultra-violet to infra-red. The optical elements in these rows have eight different classes of visual pigments and the rhabdom is divided into three different pigmented layers (tiers), each adapted for different wavelengths. The three tiers in rows 2 and 3 are separated by colour filters (intrarhabdomal filters) that can be divided into four distinct classes, two classes in each row. It is organised like a sandwich; a tier, a colour filter of one class, a tier again, a colour filter of another class, and then a last tier. Rows 5-6 are segregated into different tiers too, but have only one class of visual pigment (a ninth class) and are specialised for polarisation vision. They can detect different planes of polarised light. A tenth class of visual pigment is found in the dorsal and ventral hemispheres of the eye

Actually, that Patek talk mentions the cavitation generated in mantis shrimp strikes.... this is the same phenomenon that gives the pistol shrimp it's power.

...but the Mantis Shrimp is pretty amazing. Something about a Hyperbolic Paraboloid Spring or something...

Shelia Patek can tell you how it works...

>> ^cybrbeast:
>> ^Maze:
I was expecting some awesome killer strike footage or somethin'. What a tease.

Here you go: Mantis Shrimp bludgeons crab apart


Woo! Cheers.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'TED, Talks, Sheila Patek, fastest, animals, slow motion' to 'TED, Talks, Sheila Patek, fastest, animals, slow motion, Mantis Shrimp' - edited by notarobot

and yes... I'm upvoting because mantis shrimp > everything else (except bacon)

Christ! Three mantis shrimp vids in 24 hours? Do we need a *mantisshrip channel now?

>> ^Maze:
I was expecting some awesome killer strike footage or somethin'. What a tease.

Here you go: Mantis Shrimp bludgeons crab apart

We had one of these in our salt-water fish-tank growing up. It is exactly as described. We had some rock that we had gotten in the ocean and it came along for the ride. The one we had was MUCH smaller and never bothered the other fish because once my father saw it, he started feeding it on a stick exactly like the lady is showing.

At night, we would hear this loud clacking coming from the tank, it was the mantis shrimp burrowing through the rock to make his home larger...

I don't know what "shimp mammies" are, but ^JAPR, mantis shrimp are edible. They are popular in the Mediterranean, and if you like sushi, try "shako".
They taste like pre-buttered lobster.

Found this more detailed description on Youtube:

Thaumoctopus mimicus. This fascinating creature was discovered in 1998 off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia, the mimic octopus is the first known species to take on the characteristics of multiple species. This octopus is able to copy the physical likeness and movement of more than fifteen different species, including sea snakes, lionfish, flatfish, brittle stars, giant crabs, sea shells, stingrays, jellyfish, sea anemones, and mantis shrimp. This animal is so intelligent that it is able to discern which dangerous sea creature to impersonate that will present the greatest threat to its current possible predator. For example, scientists observed that when the octopus was attacked by territorial damselfishes, it mimicked the banded sea snake, a known predator of damselfishes.

There is another animal with a similar behaviour. A mantis shrimp, Nannosquilla decemspinosa, that rolls down sand flats when exposed at high tides:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v282/n5734/abs/282071a0.html
..and, as sifters seem to like technology, here is a review of rolling in nature and robotics:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1672-6529(07)60003-1

fav fish - squid, axolotl (Duncan!), mudskipper, dumbo, angler, fangtooth, frilled shark, mantis shrimp!