Skeletal System/Muscular System
The Spearers armed with spiny appendages topped with barbed tips, used to stab and snag prey whilst the Smashers, possessing a much more developed club used to bludgeon and smash their meals apart. The "punch" delivered has roughly the acceleration of a .22 caliber bullet. Both types strike by rapidly unfolding and swinging their raptorial claws at the prey, and are capable of inflicting serious damage on victims significantly greater in size than themselves. Smashers use this ability to attack snails, crabs, molluscs and rock oysters; their blunt clubs enabling them to crack the shells of their prey into pieces. Spearers, on the other hand, prefer the meat of softer animals, like fish, which their barbed claws can more easily slice and snag.
their dermal walls consist of a biological mineral found in many arthropods called chitin.
What underlies these remarkable biomechanics feats? Power amplification, muscle mechanics, elastic energy storage and linkage mechanisms. Such extreme speeds in water require substantial energy storage and release. Energetic calculations show that these movements cannot be controlled by muscle contractions alone. In other words, mantis shrimp must have a potent power amplification system in its limb. Earlier studies showed that mantis shrimp have latches which hold the limb in place until the animal is ready to strike. More recently, we have demonstrated that mantis shrimp use a 4-bar linkage mechanism coupled with exoskeletal springs and latches to power this remarkably forceful strike.
their dermal walls consist of a biological mineral found in many arthropods called chitin.
What underlies these remarkable biomechanics feats? Power amplification, muscle mechanics, elastic energy storage and linkage mechanisms. Such extreme speeds in water require substantial energy storage and release. Energetic calculations show that these movements cannot be controlled by muscle contractions alone. In other words, mantis shrimp must have a potent power amplification system in its limb. Earlier studies showed that mantis shrimp have latches which hold the limb in place until the animal is ready to strike. More recently, we have demonstrated that mantis shrimp use a 4-bar linkage mechanism coupled with exoskeletal springs and latches to power this remarkably forceful strike.