Eye-popping discovery.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mantis shrimp mantis shrimp, marine crustacean characterized by a pair of enlarged appendages, called maxillipeds, that form powerful claws for seizing prey. The last two segments of each of these legs are strong and sharp, and the end segment is folded back over the next segment have oddball vision. Turns out, they can see a type of light no other animal has been known to detect. Light waves are made of vibrating vibrating, v using quivering hand motions made across the client's body for therapeutic purposes. particles called photons. Mantis shrimp see a special type of polarized A one-way direction of a signal or the molecules within a material pointing in one direction. light (light waves with the same pattern of vibration), whose photons vibrate in such a way that they form a corkscrew-like pattern. Although humans can't see this light, its reflection off objects can cause glare. That's why devices like cameras and computer screens can be outfitted with filters that block the spiraling waves. Besides detecting the special light, the shrimp have patches on their exoskeleton exoskeleton /exo·skel·e·ton/ (-skel´e-ton) a hard structure formed on the outside of the body, as a crustacean's shell; in vertebrates, applied to structures produced by the epidermis, as hair, nails, hoofs, teeth, etc. , or external skeleton, that reflect it. Scientists are unsure why the shrimp can detect and reflect the light, but they suspect the animals use this ability to communicate with potential mates. |
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