The stomatopod might be one of my new favorite animals. He looks a bit ridiculous—with day-glo red, pink and blue appendages set against a profile that suggests an ill-tempered Mr. Magoo. And he's loaded up on epic, make-thine-enemies-tremble nicknames, like The Mantis Shrimp and The Thumb Splitter. When your Wikipedia entry includes a note that the ancient Assyrians called you The Sea Locust, you know you're a badass animal.
And then there's the stomatopod hunting strategy. Explained in this charmingly illustrated video made by Brown University sophomore Natividad Chen, a stomatopod kills hard-shelled prey like crabs and snails by moving its appendages at speeds upwards of 42 miles per hour—much faster than can be accounted for by the stomatopod's relatively small muscle mass. How's it work? A lot like a spring …
Via Creaturecast.
Video used with permission under noncommercial CC license.
