Mantis shrimp start their life as ferocious predators who practice throwing knockout punches at an early age. A new study, entitled "Scaling and development of elastic mechanisms: the tiny strikes of larval mantis shrimp," published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, showed that baby mantis shrimp starts practicing to punch at just nine days old.
According to the news release of Duke University, researchers studied the larvae of Philippine mantis shrimp (Gonodactylaceus falcatus) and found that they display ultra-fast movements for which the adults of this species are known.
How Fast Can Mantis Shrimp Punch
Mantis shrimp has special pairs of arms, called a raptorial appendage, that can strike at speeds of up to 110 km/hr, which scientists compared to weapons like crossbows.
According to Science News, a latch holds on to each arm in place, which stores enough energy in the arm hinge. So, these crustaceans unhinged all the stored energy when these latches are released.
However, scientists do not know at what age these species start developing their spring-loaded attacks until recently. Computer simulations predict that baby mantis shrimp could have faster weapons than adults, according to marine biologist Jacob Harrison from Duke University.
Researchers found that as early as nine days after hatching, these larvae have started striking rapidly. They measured the speed of these punches and yielded a measurement of 1.4 km/hr.
They noted that the tiny arms of the larvae are about 100 times shorter than the adults. Harrison said that its speed is up to ten times the swimming speeds of crustaceans and fish that are almost as big as the larvae and 150 times of young brine shrimps.
Harrison noted that this behavior first began when the larvae started eating live prey after finishing off the yolk sacs that they were born with.
"Mantis shrimp larvae are capable of moving incredibly quickly for something so small," Harrison says. "It is hard for small things to move quickly - their muscles and body are so tiny, there isn't really the time or space to build up speed."
He added that these speedy limbs might be significant for the larvae mantis shrimp because of the environment in the water they live in.
Baby Mantis Shrimp's Punch Slower Than The Adult's
Contrary to what researchers expected, the speed of the punches throw by the larvae mantis shrimps are slower than the adult's punches, Live Science reported.
Researchers recorded the larvae mantis shrimp and observed that although they can throw strikingly fast punches using their raptorial appendage, their speed is not at par with the adults.
They said that the finding was a little surprising, given that they expected larvae to have faster punches. They believe that the spring that latches the raptorial appendage may differ from the larval stage than when they become adults, limiting their elastic energy.
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