The Mantis Shrimp

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For this week, I read the “Mantis Shrimp” by Matthew Inman, on the Oatmeal, which is a humor website. Frankly speaking, I am a big fan of the Oatmeal, and before reading the post, I was preparing myself for an entertaining and funny read. However, I didn’t expect it to be so much informative and didactic. According to Inman, the mantis shrimp is a marine crustacean, 15 to 30 cm long, which lives in warm shallow water. It is unique on many levels. First, it has 16 color-receptive cones which allow it to see a high range of colors. Second, it is a violent animal.
It is worth noting, according to Inman, that human beings have only three color-receptive cones, dogs have only 2, and butterflies which are near the top of the food chain have five color-receptive cones. Mantis Shrimps have even a better vision than butterflies with …show more content…

I didn’t need much more to fall in love with its colors. The mantis shrimp is just spectacular with its colors, forms, eyes, and legs. Having read the previous strips, however, I wasn’t sure that the mantis shrimp was real, those two photos presented the needed evidence that mantis shrimps do exist. Trying to contain my amazement, I scrolled down, and I continued reading. Inman went on to show the mantis shrimp not as a peaceful being but as the most violent sea creature because it has “two raptorial appendages on the front of its body” which make it very sturdy (Inman, 2016). It engages in supercavitation which is a process that boils water around the mantis shrimp’s limbs and creates an undersea shockwave that kills its preys (Inman, 2016). The mantis shrimp mainly dismembers its preys and eats them. While it isn’t advisable to put a mantis shrimp in an aquarium because it can kill all living creatures in it and can even break the aquarium glass, the mantis shrimp according to Inman is his new favorite animal for several

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