Further reason for me never to enter non-chlorinated waters ever again:
The Mantis Shrimp
From Wiki: “They may reach 30 cm (12 in) in length, although exceptional cases of up to 38 cm have been recorded… These aggressive and typically solitary sea creatures spend most of their time hiding in rock formations or burrowing intricate passageways in the sea-bed. They either wait for prey to chance upon them or, unlike most crustaceans, actually hunt, chase and kill living prey.”
Oh, they can also break through glass. There are so many videos up on YouTube of them attacking other things I’m scared one is actually hiding in my fishtank at this point.
Oh, they also probably have the most complex vision abilities in the animal kingdom (as opposed to another kingdom..?):
“Rows 1-4 of the midband are specialised for colour vision, from ultra-violet to infra-red. The optical elements in these rows have eight different classes of visual pigments and the rhabdom is divided into three 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, but have only one class of visual pigment (a ninth class) and are specialised for polarisation vision. They can detect different planes of polarised light. A tenth class of visual pigment is found in the dorsal and ventral hemispheres of the eye.” (also from wiki)
I’ll be sobbing quietly in the bathroom if you need to find me.
Oh no wait, there are sources of water in there. I’ll be on my desk.