Mantis Shrimp Uses Stealth Technology to Evade Predators

The mantis shrimp seems to be full of tricks. Image courtesy of Silke Baron, Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).




Joel Kontinen

Previous research has shown that the mantis shrimp uses a fist-like club that beats airplane frames in strength.

A new study suggests that the small crustacean also employs another weird trick: it makes use of polarized light as a covert signal that predators can’t see.

Only other shrimps can detect this signal.

There are many other intelligent solutions in the animal kingdom that would be difficult if not impossible to explain by Darwinian processes that are supposed to be blind.


Source:

Polarized light as a secret signal. Nature 527, 278 (19 November 2015).