LONDON - A giant shrimp living on Australia's Great Barrier Reef can see a world beyond the rainbow that is invisible to other animals, scientists said on Wednesday.Fascinating. How could one not be awed by that capability?
Mantis shrimps, dubbed "thumb splitters" by divers because of their vicious claws, have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom, capable of seeing colors from the ultraviolet to the infrared, as well as detecting other subtle variations in light.
They view the world in up to 12 primary colors — four times as many as humans — and can measure six different kinds of light polarization…
"Some of the animals they like to eat are transparent and quite hard to see in sea water, except they're packed full of polarizing sugars. I suspect they light up like Christmas trees…"
Text from MSNBC/Reuters, image from HERE.
Not the only thing awesome that they can do. They have a killer punch.
ReplyDeleteIf people lived twice on Earth and the rest in Heaven instead of once on Earth and the rest in Heaven, I would hope to be this animal. I would love to see UV and IR light. =D
ReplyDelete