Natures wonders: mantis shrimp crustacean crusher (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, June 02, 2016, 12:32 (3094 days ago) @ David Turell

David's comment: Two points are raised. Did this develop step-wise and if so how did the shrimp eat before they could crush shells? Or was it a saltation like most other advances. It should be noted that arthropod shells ( as in shrimp) are usually fairly thin and brittle, although one uses a nut cracker to break open a lobster claw. Another example of the balance of nature. And, secondly, biomimetic examples from nature solve problems for humans.-As you say, pre-crushing survival suggests saltation: another example of organisms finding new ways to survive/improve. And it is indeed truly amazing how often these apparently dumb creatures come up with solutions that appear to require cognitive intelligence. It ties in very neatly with the hypothesis that they actually HAVE cognitive intelligence, but of course it is possible that your God preprogrammed the first living cells to pass on the crusher and billions of other innovations extant and extinct, or personally taught the shrimp how to invent it. After all, without the shrimp's crusher, nature would have been unbalanced, wouldn't it?