Shrimp punch
July 23rd, 2008
Never, ever annoy a mantis shrimp:
Mantis shrimps are aggressive relatives of crabs and lobsters and prey upon other animals by crippling them with devastating jabs. Their secret weapons are a pair of hinged arms folded away under their head, which they can unfurl at incredible speeds.
The ’spearer’ species have arms ending in a fiendish barbed spike that they use to impale soft-bodied prey like fish. But the larger ’smasher’ species have arms ending in heavy clubs, and use them to deliver blows with the same force as a rifle bullet.
[...]
With each punch, the club’s edge travels at about 50 mph
Wait, there’s more…
[Each...] of the smasher’s strikes produced small flashes of light upon impact. They are emitted because the club moves so quickly that it lowers the pressure of the water in front of it, causing it to boil.
[Via MemeMachineGo!]