Peacock Mantis Shrimp

Odontodactylus scyllarus, the peacock mantis shrimp, is a tropical Indo-Pacific stomatopod that holds several superlatives in animal sensory and motor biology. Their compound eyes contain 12 to 16 different photoreceptor types — color receptors of categories humans don't have, including ultraviolet and circularly-polarized light receptors. Where humans see three primary colors and mix the rest, mantis shrimp appear to perceive each color channel directly. Their motor capabilities are equally extreme: the species belongs to the 'smasher' subgroup of mantis shrimp, possessing two raptorial appendages that have been modified into spring-loaded clubs. The clubs accelerate from rest to 23 m/s (50 mph) in 2 milliseconds and strike with a force several thousand times the shrimp's body weight. The strike is so fast that it locally vaporizes the surrounding water, forming cavitation bubbles whose collapse produces a secondary shockwave, a flash of light (sonoluminescence), and temperatures briefly reaching ~4,700°C — hotter than the surface of the sun. The mantis shrimp uses the strike to crack snail shells, hermit crab carapaces, and small bivalves; it has shattered aquarium glass on multiple documented occasions.