This Shrimp Has 12 Color Receptors. So Why Does It See Worse Than You?

The mantis shrimp has twelve kinds of color receptor. You have three. It punches snails at up to fifty miles an hour, hard enough that the water itself hits them a second time. So when scientists gave it a simple color test, why did it do worse than you? A crossbow for an arm, a hammer that won't break, eyes that see spinning light, and a 2014 experiment that changed how we think about color vision. 0:00 Twelve Receptors, Worse Score 0:37 Neither Mantis Nor Shrimp 2:16 The Crossbow 4:04 The Punch That Hits Twice 6:20 A Hammer That Won't Break 7:45 The Fanciest Eyes on Earth 9:41 The Test 11:12 Eyes for a Fight Sources: Patek, Korff & Caldwell 2004 (Nature); Patek & Caldwell 2005 (J. Exp. Biol.); Patek et al. 2007 (J. Exp. Biol.); deVries et al. 2012 (J. Exp. Biol.); Weaver et al. 2012 (Science); Thoen et al. 2014 (Science); Bok et al. 2014 (Curr. Biol.); Chiou et al. 2008 (Curr. Biol.); Daly et al. 2016 (Nat. Commun.); Patek & Caldwell 2006; Staaterman et al. 2011; Green & Patek 2018 (Proc. R. Soc. B). #MantisShrimp #Animals #Nature