What Does Stomatopod Mean?
It’s the second installment of this mantis shrimp blog today, and what a glorious morning it is to talk about stomatopods for me, Mantis Shrimp Man, the web’s preeminent stomatopodophile.
Stomatopod is the Latin name for mantis shrimp, and you may have caught yourself wondering what the heck stomatopod means in Latin. Obviously, pod means foot, but what about stoma? I remember from back in high school biology that leaves have stoma in them, pores to let moisture out. So, does stomatopod mean porous foot? Almost. It means mouth foot.
Does that mean that these mantis shrimp actually have mouths in their feet, with little teeth and stuff? While that would be very interesting, no. The choice of the Latin name mouth foot was chosen because their anatomy revolves around an interesting front pair of feet that are used to capture food and bring it to their mouths.
I’ll be talking about that pair of feet quite a bit in the future, because they’re just fascinating. Be patient. In the meantime, read a short article from Duke Magazine on the subject.
Date: September 29, 2007
Categories: general, Mantis Shrimp, science
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