Super shrimp

May 15 2008

A species of shrimp has supersensitive eyes that can literally see "over the rainbow", scientists discovered.

The mantis shrimp from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has an appreciation of colour far superior to that of humans.

Instead of three primary colours - red, green and blue - they recognise 11 or 12. The creatures also see colours off the edge of the rainbow and invisible to human eyes, ranging from ultraviolet to infrared.