This is why the pistol shrimp is immune to its own powerful shock waves:
The tiny-but-mighty pistol shrimp can snap its claws with sufficient force to produce a shock wave to stun its prey. So how come the shrimp appears immune to its sonic weapon? Scientists have concluded that the shrimp is protected by a tiny clear helmet that protects the creature from any significant neural damage by damping the shock waves, according to a recent paper published in the journal Current Biology.
The snapping shrimp, aka the pistol shrimp, is one of the loudest creatures in the ocean, along with the sperm whale and beluga whale. When enough of these shrimp snap at once, the noise can dominate the coastal ocean soundscape, sometimes confusing sonar instruments. The source of that snap: an impressive set of asymmetrically sized claws; the larger of the two produces the snap.
[...] What makes the orbital hoods such effective dampeners? The hoods have an opening at the anterior end, and there's a layer of water between the surface of the hoods' interior and the shrimp eyes. "We propose that when a shock wave strikes an orbital hood, the rapid changes in pressure cause the water underneath it to be expelled through the anterior opening, away from the head of the shrimp," the authors wrote. "Through the expulsion of water, some of the kinetic energy of the shock wave may be redirected and released."
Journal Reference:
Alexandra C.N. Kingston, Sarah A. Woodin, David S. Wethey, and Daniel I. Speiser, Snapping shrimp have helmets that protect their brains by dampening shock waves, Curr Biology, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.042
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 20 2022, @02:17PM (3 children)
Do we at least have a decent finite element analysis of the proposed mechanism in action this time, or is it just a proposal like the Woodpeckers brain case was for several years?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 20 2022, @04:43PM
Maybe woodpeckers and other kinds of peckers don't need brains. Shrimps don't need brains either because they compensate by being the loudest creatures in the ocean.
As Morbius said, a captain doesn't need a high IQ, just a good strong voice.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Booga1 on Wednesday July 20 2022, @04:45PM (1 child)
This looks quite a bit more concrete than that woodpecker hypothesis. It's substantially more thorough than I was expecting.
In the paper, [cell.com] they described surgical procedures where they removed the orbital hood from several shrimp and measured behavior before and after shockwave exposure. They also had a sham surgery group where they performed the same surgical actions, but left the orbital hood in place. Of course, there was the control group of unaltered shrimp. They also took the time to measure the shockwaves at multiple points with both internal and external sensors at various locations on the shrimp, both before and after surgical removal of the hood.
Now that they know some of the physical and behavioral effects of removing the hood, it's enough work to lead them to a new hypothesis. I guess the next step is to confirm the mechanical/physical action hypothesis.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday July 20 2022, @05:51PM
Kudos for using the skills they have. I will point out the rather large population of post-docs all over the country who are both capable and willing to do things like 3d scanning of the surgically separated parts and running dynamic fluid modeling simulations that could show quantitative (reproducible) figures for the shock reduction effectiveness of the double shell structure. Generally, those post docs will do the work for peanuts plus publication credit.
There is probably a population of post docs who could also quantify the robustness of this species of shrimp brain to shock damage vs near relatives without shock protection, to paint a clearer picture of whether or not adaptation has evolved in the nervous tissue itself as well, maybe looking at their prey species as well.
As always: further study is warranted, contact lead author with grant offers.
There is an insatiable human desire to be aware of the latest. With so much flimsy science being published every day, I would say there is an unmet need for a journal that specializes in the new AND well supported instead of just eye catching titles in their field that barely meet minimum standards for supporting data.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end