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Article: Killer Shrimp.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science World
- Article date:
- February 26, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Think WWF wrestlers use killer jabs? Meet the mantis shrimp. Commonly nicknamed "thumb splitter," this crustacean (animal with outer shell and segmented body) features club-like claws that spear and pulverize prey 50 times faster than the blink of your eye. Definitely not the specimen of choice for an aquarium. But two such unwelcome critters (Neogonodactylus curacaoensis) have slipped into a coral reef exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Now they're smashing and dining on aquatic invertebrates (animals without backbones) like hermit crabs.
The three-inch-long shrimps--one dubbed "Sparky"--began their chomping spree last spring. "We could hear ...