Sirkkaäyriäinen

Sirkkaäyriäinen on kenties maailman monimutkaisimpia rakenteita omaava eliö. Evoluutioteoria kuitenkin olettaa, että alemmat eliöt eivät sellaisia omaisi. Jälleen kerran näemme kuinka ID:n ennuste toteutuu.

Wikipediasta:
"Mantis shrimp are the only animals with hyperspectral colour vision. Their eyes - both mounted on mobile stalks and constantly moving about (apparently independently of one another) - are similarly variably coloured, and are considered to be the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. They permit both serial and parallel analysis of visual stimuli. The compound eye is made up from up to 10,000 separate elements and are of the apposition type. Each eye consists of two flattened hemispheres separated by six parallel rows of highly specialised ommatidia called the midband. This divides the eye into three regions: the dorsal and ventral hemispheres and the midband. This is a design which makes it possible for them to see objects with three different parts of the same eye, in other words; each individual eye possesses trinocular vision and depth perception. The upper and lower hemispheres are used primarily for recognition of forms and motion, not color vision, like the eyes of so many other crustaceans. It is the six-rowed midband that is the really unique part of the three regions. Rows 1-4 are specialised for colour vision, from ultra-violet to infra-red. The optical elements in these rows have 8 different classes of visual pigments and the rhabdom is divided into 3 different pigmented layers (tiers), each adapted for different wavelengths. The three tiers in rows 2 and 3 are separated by colour filters (intrarhabdomal filters) that can be divided into four distinct classes, two classes in each row. It is organised like a sandwich; a tier, a colour filter of one class, a tier again, a colour filter of another class, and then a last tier. Rows 5-6 are segregated into different tiers too, have only one class of visual pigment (a ninth class), are specialised for polarisation vision and can see different planes of polarised light; perhaps they are even able to detect circularly polarised light. A tenth class of visual pigment is found in the dorsal and ventral hemispheres of the eye. The midband only covers a small area on about 5-10° of the visual field at any given instant, but as mentioned, the eyes are mounted on stalks. This is also the case for other groups of crustaceans, but in mantis shrimps the movement of the stalked eye is unusually free, and can be driven in all possible axes, up to at least 70°, of movement by eight individual eyecup muscles divided into six functional groups. By using these muscles for scanning the surroundings with the midband, they can add information about forms, shapes and landscape which can not be detected by the upper and lower hemisphere of the eye. They can also track moving objects using large, rapid eye movements where the two eyes are moving independently. By combining different techniques, as those mentioned and saccadic movements, the midband can cover a very wide range of the visual field in front of the mantis shrimp."

"Both types strike by rapidly unfolding and swinging their raptorial claws at the prey, and are capable of inflicting serious damage on victims significantly greater in size than themselves. In smashers, these two weapons are employed with blinding quickness, with an acceleration of 10,400 g and speeds of 23 m/s from a standing start. Because they strike so rapidly, they generate cavitation bubbles between the appendage and the striking surface. The collapse of these cavitation bubbles produce measurable forces on their prey in addition to the peak instantaneous forces of 1500 N that are caused by the impact of the appendage against the striking surface."

"Mantis shrimp appear to be highly intelligent, are long-lived and exhibit complex behaviour, such as ritualised fighting. Scientists have discovered that some species use fluorescent patterns on their bodies for signaling with their own and maybe even other species, expanding their range of behavioural signals. They can learn and remember well, and are able to recognise individual neighbours with whom they frequently interact. They can recognise them by visual signs and even by individual smell. Many have developed a complex social behaviour to defend their space from rivals."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis_shrimp

Tämän kuvan nähtyään kovinkin evouskova astuu järjen valoon:
http://www.ryanphotographic.com/images/JPEGS/Odontodactylus scyllarus mantis shrimp Fiji.jpg