Mantis shrimp punch boils water faster than lightning

This tiny crustacean packs a punch that literally heats up the ocean

By Smartasaurus· 2 min read Wild

A regular glass fish tank in your living room stands absolutely…

Mechanism call

Take a position: what's actually doing the work here?

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The short version

This tiny crustacean packs a punch that literally heats up the ocean
This create a vacuum.
While the shrimp is famous for its punch, its eyes are even weirder; they possess 16 color-receptive cones, whereas humans have only three, allowin…

If you put a peacock mantis shrimp in a regular glass aquarium, it will eventually shatter the walls and leave your living room flooded.

This crustacean doesn't just hit hard; it accelerates its front limbs at the same speed as a .22 caliber bullet. It moves from zero to 50 miles per hour in an underwater blink, delivering a blow with about 1,500 Newtons of force.

The physics behind the punch shouldn't actually work. To generate that much power, a biological muscle would have to be impossibly large. Instead, the shrimp uses a latch-and-spring mechanism located in its elbow, built from a saddle-shaped structure that acts like a composite bow.

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