By Harry Pettit For Mailonline
Published: 11:33 BST, 17 January 2018 | Updated: 13:59 BST, 17 January 2018
It may be just a shrimp but it packs a punch as powerful as pistol.
A
ferocious predator, the mantis shrimp extends its arms at 50mph
(80km/h) to smash its prey with a force equivalent to a .22 bullet.
Now scientists have discovered how the crustacean delivers such a devastating blow without breaking its own limbs.
A unique structure wraps around the creature's club 'like a boxer's hand wraps' to protect its arm from its own punch.
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It may be just a shrimp but it
packs a punch as powerful as pistol. A ferocious predator, the mantis
shrimp (file photo) extends its arms at 50 mph (80 kph) to smash its
prey with a force equivalent to a .22 bullet
The
mantis shrimp is famed for its blink-and-you'll-miss-it hunting
technique, which has earned it the title of 'world's deadliest shrimp'.
Typically
found in warm waters across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the
four-inch crustaceans feed on molluscs, clams and crabs.
They fire a set of jointed club and spear-like appendages using a spring-loaded system that works like a crossbow.
If
a human could accelerate their arm just 10 per cent as quickly as the
mantis shrimp, they would be able to throw a cricket ball into space.
Additionally, it can strike so quickly that it heats the surrounding water to 4,000°C (7.000°F).
This produces destructive bubbles that quickly collapse, releasing energy in an explosive process called cavitation.
The strike can kill prey even when the shrimp's jab misses and can even crack ship propellers.
They found that the shrimp sports striations or fibres that wrap sideways around the full circumference of its club.
The shrimp protects its club in a similar way to boxers, the researchers said.
'We
believe the role of the fiber-reinforced striated region in the
smasher's club is much like the hand wrap used by boxers when they
fight: To compress the club and prevent catastrophic cracking,' lead
researcher Dr David Kisailus said.
'Together, the impact, periodic and striated regions form a club of incredible strength, durability and impact resistance.'
The
mantis shrimp's club can reach speeds of up to 65 feet per second (20m
per second), fast enough to smash the toughest crab shells and even
aquarium glass.
It can achieve such
speeds underwater thanks to its club's teardrop shape, which minimises
drag, the researchers found in a cross-section of the limb.
'The
natural world can provide many more design cues that will enable us to
develop high performance synthetic materials,' Dr Kisailus said.
Striations
or fibres (d and e) wrap around the creature's club (top) 'like a
boxer's hand wraps' to protect its arm from its own punch
The
mantis shrimp is famed for its blink-and-you'll-miss-it hunting
technique, which has earned it the title of 'world's deadliest shrimp'.
Typically
found in warm waters across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the
four-inch crustaceans feed on molluscs, clams and crabs.
They fire a set of jointed club and spear-like appendages using a spring-loaded system that works like a crossbow.
If
a human could accelerate their arm just 10 per cent as quickly as the
mantis shrimp, they would be able to throw a cricket ball into space.
Additionally, it can strike so quickly that it heats the surrounding water to 4,000°C (7.000°F).
This produces destructive bubbles that quickly collapse, releasing energy in an explosive process called cavitation.
The strike can kill prey even when the shrimp's jab misses and can even crack ship propellers.
The four-inch
crustaceans fire their jointed club using a spring-loaded system that
works like a crossbow. If a human could accelerate their arm just 10 per
cent as quickly as the mantis shrimp, they would be able to throw a
cricket ball into space