Mantis shrimps may be small, but their punch is the fastest in the world! Mantis shrimps are relatives of lobsters and crabs. They are aggressive and will often cripple other animals with their jabs. The secret to their power is in a pair of hinged arms which can knock down the enemy at incredible speed.
Sheila Patek, a researcher at UC Berkley, was trying to study these odd creatures when she encountered a problem. “None of our high-speed video systems were fast enough to capture the movement accurately,” she says. “Luckily, a BBC crew offered to rent us a super high-speed camera as part of their series Animal Camera.”
Patek needed to slow down the video 800 times to see just how fast these shrimps can hit. The speeds are staggering – they go up to 50 mph!
Learn more in the video by BBC Earth Unplugged below.
