{"id":8254,"date":"2012-06-08T00:14:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T04:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=8254"},"modified":"2012-06-08T00:15:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T04:15:07","slug":"too-cool-15-welcome-our-mantis-shrimp-overlords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2012\/06\/too-cool-15-welcome-our-mantis-shrimp-overlords\/","title":{"rendered":"Too cool, part 15: Welcome our mantis shrimp overlords"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been watching the development of the local praying mantises with interest, but this variety of &#8216;mantis&#8217; is something else entirely. While at least one variety of these could supposedly be found in Florida when I was there, I never did locate one, which is perhaps for the better. But this means I have no image to use here, and will instead send you over to <em>Not Exactly Rocket Science<\/em> for Yong&#8217;s post on the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2012\/06\/07\/how-mantis-shrimps-deliver-armour-shattering-punches-without-breaking-their-fists\/#more-7059\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>weapon of the mantis shrimp<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While there, of course, you will also check out the related posts on the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2008\/03\/21\/mantis-shrimps-have-a-unique-way-of-seeing\/\" target=\"_blank\">eyes of a mantis shrimp<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2009\/10\/25\/mantis-shrimp-eyes-outclass-dvd-players-inspire-new-technology\/\" target=\"_blank\">more on the eyes<\/a> of a mantis shrimp, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/notrocketscience\/2008\/07\/19\/the-mantis-shrimp-has-the-worlds-fastest-punch\/\" target=\"_blank\">speed of a mantis shrimp<\/a>. Let&#8217;s face it &#8211; they are our superior in every way.<\/p>\n<p>Well, except for taste, since their color scheme looks like what happened when the animators for <em>Yellow Submarine<\/em> lost their inhibitions. The photos Ed Yong used for those posts don&#8217;t give you as good an idea of their overall appearance as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i-ahuZEvWH8\" target=\"_blank\">this video<\/a> does, however, which also demonstrates their abilities pretty distinctly<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i-ahuZEvWH8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Granted, I have a personal liking for the shy <a href=\"http:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2011\/08\/too-cool-part-ten-bang\/\" target=\"_blank\">pistol shrimp<\/a>, but I have to yield to the awesome power and exuberance of the mantis. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mu6yrC6bjNo\" target=\"_blank\">This video<\/a> shows more of their hunting prowess, including against my other buddies, the <a href=\"http:\/\/wading-in.net\/Tank\/Shrimp1.html\" target=\"_blank\">grass shrimp<\/a>. For scale, know that grass shrimp are usually 2-3 cm long, though this video represents only one variety of mantis shrimp that range in size significantly.<\/p>\n<p>I also feel obligated to point out, not that anyone should need the warning, that my introduction to the species came when I was researching photo needs for a potential client, and found the story of the diver that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueboard.com\/mantis\/faq.htm#faq12\" target=\"_blank\">needed to have his finger amputated<\/a> after an encounter. So um, yeah, cool as they are, put one in your aquarium at your own risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been watching the development of the local praying mantises with interest, but this variety of &#8216;mantis&#8217; is something else entirely. While at least one variety of these could supposedly be found in Florida when I was there, I never did locate one, which is perhaps for the better. But this means I have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,9,46],"tags":[897,1286,898,1287],"class_list":["post-8254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-continued","category-nature","category-science","category-too-cool","tag-ed-yong","tag-mantis-shrimp","tag-not-exactly-rocket-science","tag-stomatopods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}