A little 4-inch-long jail breaker is known for having the ocean’s fastest punch. Why a ‘jailbreaker’, you wonder? Because this species is notorious for literally punching through and breaking out of their enclosures made of thick glass.
The Mantis Shrimps or stomatopods are marine crustaceans and are also called prawn killers in Australia। They have now earned a new name – thumb splitters – because, as hard to believe as it is, their punches can slice a human thumb open, down to its bone, in milliseconds! Their punch is so powerful that they can easily smash through a snail’s shell and even break chunks out of a rock wall.
These tiny crustaceans have produced one of the fastest recorded movements in the animal kingdom. The punch? It has the same acceleration as a 22 caliber bullet, which means it can deliver a blow of 15,000 Newtons, a force that is 2,500 times the shrimp’s weight!
So how is it able to do that?
The shrimp’s forelimbs are hinged and folded under its head, and the animal uses a biological spring, latch system to keep it tucked and ready to unfurl whenever needed. So, when that latch releases, the lower arm shoots out and acts as a club with so much force that it is able to break through barriers. A peacock mantis shrimp can pack a 50-mph punch!
So, what if a human could punch like a mantis shrimp?
Well, that force would equate to 3.5 gigapascals, which is around 5 million times more than the fastest punch by a human ever recorded.
We suppose this shrimp could be a supershrimp.
Don’t believe us? Check out this video and see for yourself!
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