Multi-scale structural design and biomechanics of the pistol shrimp snapper claw

The Arthropoda, the largest phylum of the Animal Kingdom, have successfully evolved to survive various ecological constraints under a wide range of environmental conditions. Central to this survival are the structural designs developed in their exoskeletons and their raptorial appendages for protection and hunting. One such example, the pistol shrimp, is a shallow-water crustacean that is well-known for its aggressive hunting behavior, using its snapper claw to trigger the nucleation of cavitation bubbles that strike targets. In this study, we conducted a multi-scale structural/nanomechanics relationship study of this biotool to analyze its mechanical response to contact stresses. We found that the pistol shrimp snapper claw, which exhibits the capacity to emit a high-velocity water jet during rapid closure actions, is more brittle than other mineralized biotools, exhibiting accelerated wear damage under contact stresses. However, due to an angular offset between the dactylus and pollex of the snapper claw, the appendage never engages in any mechanical contact during the snapping action. This feature is in stark contrast to that reported in other fast raptorial appendages of crustaceans, notably the mantis shrimp dactyl club, which is designed to shatter close range targets in contact mode and exhibits a superior resistance to contact damage and wear. These findings suggest that adaptation of hunting appendages goes beyond their macroscopic morphology, and that multi-scale structural design concomitantly adapted to function, with enhanced structural complexification for tools that are subjected to more intense contact stresses.

The evolution success of crustaceans is largely due to the diversification of their mineralized exoskeletons and hunting appendages, which exhibit a large palette of morphometric characteristics that have adapted to meet particular functions. We explored the "snapper claw" of the pistol shrimp, which is used to generate cavitation bubbles and strike prey. Our multi-scale structure-property relationship study reveals that the snapper claw is more brittle than other fast raptorial appendages - such as the stomatopod dactyl club - because it is not directly subjected to direct contact forces during action. This study implies that when higher mechanical stresses are needed to meet the function, the internal structure is built of a more complex architecture that allows to mitigate internal structural damage.