Peacock Mantis Shrimp

The peacock mantis shrimp possesses one of nature's most sophisticated visual communication systems. With sixteen color receptors (humans have three), they can see polarized light and distinguish colors invisible to almost every other animal. Their meral spread display - extending brilliant raptorial appendages striped in electric blue, orange, and red - reveals hidden ultraviolet patterns that signal fighting ability. The display is honest because appendage size correlates with destructive power: a mantis shrimp's strike accelerates at 10,000 times gravity and generates temperatures approaching those of the sun's surface.