Comments on: The sharp shooters of marine life

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:18:24 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by para_sight: Nice blog post about pistol shrimp and their wicked weapon – http://b2l.me/qhfzp

By: ResearchBlogging.org News » Blog Archive » Editor’s Selections: Of Frogsong, Old Enmities, Shots Fired, and Pigs

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:05:18 +0000

[...] Even in the ocean, it pays to be quick on the draw. [...]

By: Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:03:07 +0000

However, researchers still do not know which evolved first in the archerfish: the keen eyesight or the accurate spitting.

I would guess the spitting came first and the eyesight evolved to take fuller advantage of it. Madeline and EcoTone folks, please keep following this one to let us know!

By: Melissa Hughes

Melissa Hughes — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:16:57 +0000

The mechanism used by snapping (pistol) shrimp to produce that snap is incredibly cool. But A. heterochaelis, at least, is certainly not nearly blind – in fact, they use their large claw in visual displays (known as ‘open chela displays’, and respond to the visual display by itself (claw on a stick, if you will) as a function of its relative size. They even produce such visual displays deceptively – or at least, will use the visual display to exaggerate their apparent size.