Faster than a speeding bullet!

I think we all know by now just how awesome mantis shrimp are when it comes to their incredible eyes, their yearly monogamy (see here), and their incredible strength with their modified claws:

Here are some new statistics on the peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) from David Kisailus' lab at Univeristy of California, Riverside to rock your world:

• the mantis shrimp's fist can move up to 72 km/hr (That's faster than your average cat, and about the same speed as an African wild dog. But remember, a mantis shrimp is underwater!)

it's a tie!

• the fist reaches the above speed by accelerating faster than a .22-calibre bullet

(any Arrested Development fans out there?)

• moving that quickly, the water around a mantis shrimp's fist BOILS! Really!!

cavitation bubbles forming
(the arrows point to 'em in panels E, F, and G)

EXTREME!

Mind, consider yourself blown!

(David Kisailus is hoping to mimic the strength of mantis shrimps' fists to produce body armour that could withstand 50,000 bullets!  Thanks, Miranda, for the mantis facts!)

SICB Lessons: Mantis shrimp are AWESOME

this Odontodactylus scyllarus is just oozing awesomeness

OK, OK, this isn’t really something I needed to learn at a conference, but this fact is reinforced every time I go to SICB. That’s because I get to see presentations about these cool stomatopods from Sheila Patek and her lab. They look at the muscle physiology and mechanics of mantis shrimp raptorial appendages. You can read the 2010 abstract here and the 2011 abstract here. The main take-away message is that mantis shrimp are super fast and wicked strong!

[This is a long video, but really interesting if you have the time.]

I also learned that, within 8 genera, there are monogamous mantis shrimp (at least for one breeding season) from Molly Wright with UC Berkeley. So that means that we can stop worshipping those pesky penguins as our models for (eternal) love!

I sketched that guy, so sorry if it's not entirely accurate

(Feel free to use this card for your loved ones:

1. Download it and print it out on white card stock, trimming any edges

2. Fold on the grey dashed line

3. Write something meaningful inside like, "... at least for this year" or "I smashed some snails just for you! Love, Me" (that last one would be great if you have escargot on hand))

I linked up to the XLV Carnival of the Blue: