Shrimpy superboxer

by Jonathan Sarfati

28 June 2006

Mantis shrimps (click on images to see higher resolution versions) Gary Bell, <www.oceanwideimages.com>

The club-like limb reaches a top speed of 14–23 metres per second (31–51 mph), and a peak acceleration of 65–104 km/s² (6600–10,600 g, where 1 g is the acceleration due to gravity; astronauts and jet fighter pilots will pass out at only 10 g).³ They use this to crush the shells of snails they prey on, and in captivity, have shattered the glass walls of their tanks.²

Catapult

The peacock mantis shrimp can punch with a force ‘well over a hundred times the mantis shrimp's body weight.’

Its shape has the technical name hyperbolic-paraboloid, but resembles a Pringles chip. It is a very strong and efficient structure. Indeed, it is used in engineering and architecture because it distributes stresses and resists buckling, while the nautilus uses this structure to strengthen its shell.¹ However, no other animal uses it as a spring.³

But a spring isn’t enough for a catapult. There must also be muscles to load it, and a click or latch mechanism to release it. If all these parts were not in place, the mechanism would not work at all. This could not have formed by random small changes and natural selection, because the latter would not work since the changes confer no advantage until the whole system is complete.

Bubble blast

In fact, each blow is a one-two punch. Dr Patek’s team found that there were two force peaks for every strike, less than half a millisecond apart. The second one is caused by a destructive process called cavitation.⁴ This is where high-speed water flows irregularly, causing tiny bubbles of water vapour to form. When the pressure is restored, they collapse at supersonic speeds, forming shock waves with huge pressures, as well as sound and even light. In fact, the cavitation forces may be almost four times those of the actual limb impact. Cavitation can destroy steel surfaces and boat propellers, and would have destroyed hard rock during the Flood.⁵ Even the shrimp’s heel is not immune—even though it contains tough minerals, they moult frequently to regenerate.³

Chance or design?

The mantis shrimp with the catapult puncher that exploits cavitation defies evolution. But how does crushing snails fit with a creation described as ‘very good’? First, invertebrates such as snails are not ‘living’ in the sense of being ‘soulish’, as vertebrates are—the Bible never calls them nephesh chayyāh (living souls/creatures). Indeed, scientific evidence suggests that invertebrates do not experience pain.⁶ Second, this could have been a latent feature programmed into the genes by the Creator who foreknew the Fall.⁷

Super sight Instead of throwing a shrimp on the Barbie, I want to put a prawn into space. The mantis shrimp also ‘has one of the world’s most complex colour vision systems’, according to Justin Marshall of Queensland University’s research centre for vision (Australia).1 While humans have three different types of colour receptor (red, green and blue), the shrimp has 12. Four of these can see in the ultraviolet, which we can’t.2 Furthermore, they can tune their vision with special transparent colour filters to compensate for the way water absorbs different colours differently.3 Dr Marshall said that understanding the shrimp’s eyes could help us design cameras for satellites. ‘Instead of throwing a shrimp on the Barbie, I want to put a prawn into space.’1 References Prawn of a new era, Sunday Telegraph, 16 September 2001. Return to text. Marshall, N.J. and Oberwinkler, J., The colourful world of the mantis shrimp, Nature 401(6756):873–874, 1999; this shrimp was Neogonodactylus oerstedii. Return to text. Cronin, T.W., Marshall, N.J., Caldwell, R.L., Tunable colour vision in a mantis shrimp, Nature 411(6837):547–548, 2001; this shrimp was Haptosquilla trispinosa. Long wavelength light such as red is absorbed more than short wavelengths like blue, so very little red reaches the shrimps in deep water, so its filters are tuned to shorter wavelengths. Return to text.

References

1. Weston, P., Creation’s crustaceans, Creation 23(3):10–13, 2001; www.creationontheweb.com/crust. Return to text.
2. Sanders, R., Mantis shrimp may have swiftest kick in the animal kingdom, UCBerkeley News, <www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/04/21_shrimp.shtml>, 21 April 2004. Return to text.
3. Patek, S.N., Korff, W.L. and Caldwell, R.L., Deadly strike mechanism of a mantis shrimp, Nature 428(6985):819, 22 April 2004. Return to text.
4. Patek, S.N. and Caldwell, R.L., Extreme impact and cavitation forces of a biological hammer: strike forces of the peacock mantis shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus, Journal of Experimental Biology 208:3655–3664, 2005. Return to text.
5. As long as the water was fast (over 30 m/s, 70 mph) and shallow (under 10 m or 30 feet deep); Cardno, S. and Wieland, C., Clouds, coins and creation: An airport encounter with professional scientist and creationist Dr Edmond Holroyd, Creation 20(1):22–23, 1997; <www.creationontheweb.com/holroyd>. Return to text.
6. ‘Some insects normally show no signs of painful experience at all. A dragonfly, for example, may eat much of its own abdomen if its tail end is brought into the mouthparts. Removal of part of the abdomen of a honeybee does not stop the animal’s feeding. If the head of a blow-fly (Phormia) is cut off, it nevertheless stretches its tubular feeding organ (proboscis) and begins to suck if its chemoreceptors (labellae) are brought in touch with a sugar solution; the ingested solution simply flows out at the severed neck.’ ‘Sensory Reception: Mechanoreception’, Encyclopædia Britannica (Electronic edition on CD). Return to text.
Return to text.
7. See also Batten, D. (Ed.), Catchpoole, D., Sarfati, J. and Wieland, C., The Creation Answers Book, chapter 6, Creation Book Publishers, USA; and Q&A: Death and Suffering, <www.creationontheweb.com/curse>. Return to text.