Mantis on ABC World News

[freeqgOd]

They had a segement on ABC World News tonight on how the Mantis has the world's most powerful punch. They said if it were the size of a human it would pack 50 tons of force that is equal to battle ship guns.
Just thought it was cool and I would share

 

[tirtguyll]

wow never thought of it that way.

 

[ReefMagic]

I hate how they compare it if it were that huge size. the fact is it isn't the size of a human hand so it won't pack that much of a punch.
interesting nonetheless.

 

[Gonodactylus]

I make no apologies for the piece. ABC asked the question and I gave them the answer. They didn't have time - or interest - in telling why you can't scale up a stomatopod to 2 meters and have the striking force remain proportional to size. The piece was supposed to be pure entertainment - which I hope it was.

Roy

 

[Jagged1]

He he...

He he...

That sounds like a great movie plot... I can see it now!

The military genetically engineers a giant human sized mantis shrimp as a super soldier. It goes around punching things into pulp!

The real question is if it were that large would it survive its own attack?

 

[Gonodactylus]

The answer is no. In fact, the largest smashers have already exceeded the point where their strike is more powerful than their armor. The power of the strike increase roughly in proportion to the cross-sectional area of the muscles in the merus. The armor increseas in rough proportion to the thickness. As you scale up, the power of the strike increases much more rapidly than the strength of the armor to withstand it. This is probably one reason that O. scyllarus are so brightly colored and rarely escalate their fights to all out striking.

Roy

 

[Mmaggicc2]

We saw the ABC segment and loved it ! It was very entertaining and brought attention to a fascinating piece of information. Mary

 

[JumboShrimp]

it only made my mom more scred of them. LOL

 

[H2OLUVSME]

i saw a good one on National Geographic a few weeks back. it was about odd sea creatures. they had about a 6 minute segment that folloed a mantis through a molt and attack by a large female who took over his burrow. it was very interesting. it talked mostly about their eyes and sense of smell.

LT

 

[rags111875]

you fellas prob already read this before; if not, here goes:
http://www.downwindproductions.com/mantis_shrimp.html