Weird Shrimp Has Astounding Vision
ScienceDaily (May 15, 2008) — A Swiss marine biologist and an Australian quantum physicist have found that a species of shrimp from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, can see a world invisible to all other animals.
Dr Sonja Kleinlogel and Professor Andrew White have shown that mantis shrimp not only have the ability to see colours from the ultraviolet through to the infrared, but have optimal polarisation vision — a first for any animal and a capability that humanity has only achieved in the last decade using fast computer technology.
“The mantis shrimp is a delightfully weird beastie,” said Professor White, of the University of Queensland. “They’re multi-coloured, their genus and species names mean ‘mouth-feet’ and ‘genital-fingers’; they can move each eye independently, they see the world in 11 or 12 primary colours as opposed to our humble three, and now we find that this species can see a world invisible to the rest of us.”
Dr Kleinlogel, is based at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt, and collected the shrimp from the reef. She notes that, “…scuba divers know them as ‘thumb-splitters’, they’ve got wickedly strong claws and are very aggressive!”
