The mantis shrimp has the world’s fastest punch and moves so quickly that it boils nearby water and creates flashes of light.
This aggressive relative of crabs and lobsters can pierce even the toughest armor of its opponents. Their clubbed arms deliver the blow of a bullet that is so fast, researchers had to slow footage of their movement down by 800 times to analyze is properly.
According to Ed Yong from Discover Magazine:
The smashers deliver the fastest punch of any animal. As the club unfurls, its acceleration is 10,000 times greater than gravity. Moving through water, it reaches a top speed of 50 miles per hour. It creates a pressure wave that boils the water in front of it, creating flashes of light (shrimpoluminescene – no, really) and immensely destructive bubbles. The club reaches its target in just three thousandths of a second, and strikes with the force of a rifle bullet.
Watch a video below:
Sources
- The mantis shrimp has the world’s fastest punch (Ed Yong, Discover Magazine: July 19, 2008)
- How mantis shrimps deliver armour-shattering punches without breaking their fists (Ed Yong, Discover Magazine: June 7, 2012)
