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Rolling with the punches: How mantis shrimp defend against high-speed strikes
These territorial crustaceans use their tails as shields to defend against the explosive punches of their rivals.
Ecologist Patrick Green, at UC Santa Barbara, studied these creatures to understand how they defend themselves from the blows of their rivals. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, highlight how insights from behavior are critical in understanding animal morphology. “In mantis shrimp competitors exchange bullet-like hits on each other’s armored tail plates, or telsons, during fights over shelters,” Green explained.
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