
Naturalistic evolution cannot explain many things in nature. For example, why do various birds display colors that offer no purpose and may make them vulnerable to predators? We see one of the most interesting examples that doesn’t fit blind mechanistic chance in the mantis shrimp’s design feature that can exert a blow 1000 times its body weight.
The mantis shrimp uses a club-like feature to strike its prey with a force so extreme that it creates imploding bubbles that increase the force. The question is how the design of the mantis shrimp’s club-like feature doesn’t harm the shrimp. Dr Horacio Espinosa at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has published a study explaining the mantis shrimp’s design.
Mantis shrimps have layers of mineral-hardened chitin arranged in bundles, with each layer rotated slightly with respect to the layers above and below. You might compare it to a stack of papers that have been twisted, creating a helix-like corkscrewing shape. This arrangement dissipates the strike’s energy and prevents shear waves from damaging the soft tissue of the shrimp.
Engineers are trying to copy this design to increase the toughness of airplane wings and wind turbine blades. They are sure to find more uses in future high-performance materials. We have previously highlighted the mantis shrimp’s design features, including its club, eyes, and visual system. The shrimp’s protective layer is one more example of a design scientists discovered in the natural world that can aid the design of objects beneficial to humans. God thought of these features first, and they are the product of intelligence – not mechanistic, opportunistic chance.
— John N. Clayton © 2025
Reference: sciencenews.org