Alpheid shrimp are a type of snapping shrimp, which have a specialized claw to create a blast of pressure to stun or kill their prey. This motion can also create sonoluminescence, a burst of light from a collapsing cavitation bubble. While the light is not visibile to the naked eye, the pistol shrimp is the only known organism to create light in this way. They are also among the loudest critters in the ocean, competing with whales for the amount of noise they create. Enjoy this unneccessarily melodramatic, but still very cool, video:
Family Alpheidae
* Some other notable features of snapping…
Advertisment
