Despite their name, mantis shrimp are not true shrimp but a type of stomatopod: a relative of crabs and lobsters that has been on Earth for over 400 million years. There are more than 400 different ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. At first glance, the mantis shrimp is an unassuming ...

Peacock mantis shrimp are one of the larger mantis shrimp species, measuring 1.2 to 7.1 inches in length. Peacock mantis shrimp get their name from their kaleidoscope shell, like a peacock’s tail, and ...

Texas is home to some of the creepiest, crawliest, and otherwise oddest animals on the planet. We introduce you to them in What in Tarnation?!, an occasional series. Before he became a Gulf Coast ...

Disco clams (Ctenoides ales) are unusually colorful bivalves: They have bright-red appendages and a strip of tissue that flashes like a strobe light. A new study suggests this flashy appearance could ...

Rainbow shrimp vision: Learn more about the mantis shrimp that has between 12 and 16 photoreceptors, compared to humans that only have three. Rainbow shrimp vision is the most complex of any animal on ...

The mantis shrimp comes equipped with its own weapons. It has claws that look like permanently clenched fists that are known as dactyl clubs. But when it smashes the shells of its prey, these fists ...

Researchers traced neural connections in a newly discovered brain region of mantis shrimp, gaining new insights into how the fierce predators are able to make sense of a breathtaking amount of visual ...

No one can deny that the mantis shrimp is special. The charismatic crustacean looks like a walking Mardi Gras parade and hammers its enemies so fast that water boils. Now scientists have added another ...

Mantis shrimp, a group of aggressive, reef-dwelling crustaceans, take more than one first-place ribbon in the animal kingdom. Outwardly, they resemble their somewhat larger lobster cousins, but their ...