Weapons knock down enemies in the blink of an eye

The shrimp are used more and more like a gun, firing a powerful shockwave that causes serious damage to the enemy.

If you dive into tropical waters near the shore, you may hear a sound like chestnut cracking when baked. At a volume of about 200 decibels, larger than the .22 rifle sound, this sound is the earliest type in the ocean, just behind the cry of a sperm whale.

Weapons with great damage of shrimp knocking. (Video: National Geographic).

It is the sound emitted from the shrimps of the shrimps , which is likened to the powerful gun of this animal, which can fire a shockwave of waves to defeat opponents or prey in a blink of an eye, according to New Scientist. .

When two shrimps knocked each other head to head against each other, they suddenly closed the larger one by almost half the size of the body towards the opponent, creating extremely powerful water jets with speeds up to 30m / sec.

The power of this shrimp's shot is rarely fatal, but it can cause the defeated shrimp to break or suffer serious injuries. But this high-speed water jet is not an injury weapon, because it is the result of the shockwave generated by the closing blow .

Phoevos Koukouvinis scientist at the University of London, UK, and his colleagues simulated what happened after shrimps knocked on more and more at different speeds. They found that when the shrimps closed, the friction between the spray of fast water and the surrounding calm water created a vortex.

When the vortex begins to spin to a level fast enough, it creates a gap in the middle. When the gap collapses, it releases very strong shock waves. All this process took place in less than half a millisecond, Koukouvinis said.

Knocked shrimp, they use pairs to protect their partners and accommodation.(Photo: New Scientist).

Because the shrimps are only about 5 centimeters long, their shock guns are only aimed at similarly sized animals. But researcher Nancy Knowlton of the Smithsonia Institute in Washington, USA, recommends not putting your hands in a shrimp pond."You won't feel anything if you just dive near the reef, but if you put your hands in front of the reef, you'll obviously feel very hurt when attacked by shockwaves ," Knowlton said.

Knocked shrimp are scavengers, eating debris at the bottom of the sea, so they rarely use the "bullets" to scare their prey. Instead, they use shock wave weapons to protect their mates and accommodation.