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Mantis shrimp are an awe-inspiring predator, being highly skilled and well developed for the role as a high level predator. They are very active hunters, and are lightning quick at lashing out. One finger of their main claw lies folded with a groove in much the same was as the blade of a pocketknife does in its handle. During a strike at prey, this unfolding motion can occur in less than 1/125th of a second, or 8 milliseconds, with the force of a small caliber bullet. It is one of the fastest animal movements known.
A mantis also has the most complex vision system known; trinocular vision. This super vision is required to give the accuracy that is vital to capture fish at the speed of the motions involved. Add on top of these features their noteworthy intelligence, and it all adds up to a predator that humans are very lucky is so small and lives in the ocean.
again this is the fella i remember seeing and identifying as a mantis shrimp - we occasionally netted the lone sodiers at night, sometimes they can be seen smimming around jetties late at night up north off the reef islands - doubt they would be found in the mangroves
I reckon it's a mantis shrimp. Their size seems to vary a lot. I've seen 'em in the Swan River at night about 5-6 cms long, and in East Timor we'd buy the buggers to eat when they where the size of small crays!
I can confirm that it is NOT a mantis shrimp - with 4 years of marine biology and many mantis shrimp inflicted wounds I should know.
The poorly developed tail (and I assume poorly developed swimmerets underneath the tail as well) indicates to me that it may normally reside in a shell - posibly a hermit crab of some sort that has lost his home (a result of credit crunch?)
I'd say get on to QLD Museum - I may be a crustacean biologist (I specialised in prawn sperm cells - seriously) but the guys at the museum are gurus with taxonomy (Identification)
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