Mantis shrimps: is there anything they can't do?

They see in 12 colours and using polarised light, they move at the speed of a bullet. Go read about them at Not Exactly Rocket Science. Yes, they are the coolest inverts...

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The most incredible eyes in the animal world can be found under the sea, on the head of the mantis shrimps. Each eye can move independently and can focus on object with three different areas, giving the mantis shrimp "trinocular vision".

Only because nobody's ever given them one to try.

By John S. Wilkins (not verified) on 21 Mar 2008 #permalink

Now, if we could just crossbreed them with cuttlefish to give them the latter's amazing powers of camouflage, we'd have the perfect nautical ninja. They'd be a sort of submarine version of the alien from Predator

By Ian H Spedding FCD (not verified) on 22 Mar 2008 #permalink

I gotta get me a bullet proof aquarium and some of those buggers. Then I can drop in lots of Cephalopods and sent PZ pictures of the ensuing carnage.

By Brian English (not verified) on 23 Mar 2008 #permalink