Pistol shrimp will fuck you up!

[Cain]

Obviously it can cast fireball, either as a memorized spell or as some sort of innate inability!

Anyway, self-cooking shrimp is the way forward.

[Elder Iptuous]

could we also get them to explosively shit themselves, so that they don't have to be deveined?
there's some caterpillar that shoots it's feces as a defense mechanism (help please, Kai?)  perhaps we can use some transgenics here...

[Kai]

I'm gonna guess it's some sort of rachet-like system, so there is a massive amount of one-way tension generated, and all the muscles pull in one direction.

Okay, I went back to look for my old physiology notes but apparently I lost those.   so, working on memory now.

Its the release of calcium that triggers a muscle contraction. ATP relaxes the muscle. So, IIRC, the sarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria would release large amounts of Ca+2 into the muscle fibers, thus causing them to contract. I think you're right about the tension; the rest state would have to be the claw closed. explains why the claw is such heavy duty material as well.

So, calcium has caused all the muscle to contract, of which I'm guessing there are MANY many fibers. Fibers are suddenly flooded with a sequestered amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the muscles relax all at once, releasing the claw to the ground state, all of that potential energy going kinetic. Not just two hands clapping together either, but a lock and key mechanism where the fluid is quickly evacuated. The activity causes the air dissolved in the water to condense into a bubble, heat light etc

Or something like that.

[LMNO]

[Kai]

could we also get them to explosively shit themselves, so that they don't have to be deveined?
there's some caterpillar that shoots it's feces as a defense mechanism (help please, Kai?)  perhaps we can use some transgenics here...

I know of caterpillars that hold their feces in a ball at the end of their abdomens and attempt to present them at any would be predators.

There's also sea cucumbers that void their intestines (yes, their intestines, not just the contents) to confuse predators.

[Cain]

could we also get them to explosively shit themselves, so that they don't have to be deveined?
there's some caterpillar that shoots it's feces as a defense mechanism (help please, Kai?)  perhaps we can use some transgenics here...

I know of caterpillars that hold their feces in a ball at the end of their abdomens and attempt to present them at any would be predators.

There's also sea cucumbers that void their intestines (yes, their intestines, not just the contents) to confuse predators.

Speaking as the planet's apex predator, I have to admit that would confuse me.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Now I'm imagining someone voiding their intestines as a defense against, say, muggers.


"Alright, hand over your-" *SPLORTCH* "oh what the fuck, get the fuck outta here!"

[Kai]

Now I'm imagining someone voiding their intestines as a defense against, say, muggers.


"Alright, hand over your-" *SPLORTCH* "oh what the fuck, get the fuck outta here!"

It would work, if say, you could go for an extended period without eating and the gut were simple enough to replicate. Unfortunatly it's not in humans.

Thats assuming the mechanisms for voiding and regrowth were present, of course.



Why am I thinking about anal prolapse now? 

[LMNO]

Because I'm making you think about it.



"I'M USING THE PROLAPSE DEFENSE!"
   \

[Elder Iptuous]

ok, where is that smiley from?

also, the poop shooting caterpillar i recall seeing on the 'discovery' channel's show '10 most eXtreme [whatever]' and it was defense mechanisms in this episode.  they showed the caterpillar shooting his poop to ward off, i think, a wasp.  then, in the shows customary fashion, they demonstrate, with crappy tron-looking CGI, what it would be like if a human were to implement whatever feature they are highlighting on our relative scale.  they actually had the little cgi guy bend over and take an esplosive shit with a trajectory that passed over a cgi football field....  i nearly did the same thing from laughing.

[Cain]

ok, where is that smiley from?

Abused and Prolapsed Bitches 8.  Its, um, erotic art, of a sort.

[Jenne]

ok, where is that smiley from?

also, the poop shooting caterpillar i recall seeing on the 'discovery' channel's show '10 most eXtreme [whatever]' and it was defense mechanisms in this episode.  they showed the caterpillar shooting his poop to ward off, i think, a wasp.  then, in the shows customary fashion, they demonstrate, with crappy tron-looking CGI, what it would be like if a human were to implement whatever feature they are highlighting on our relative scale.  they actually had the little cgi guy bend over and take an esplosive shit with a trajectory that passed over a cgi football field....  i nearly did the same thing from laughing.

to the Discovery channel...they take horrormirth to a new level with each show

[Kai]

Discovery channel is like the tabloid news of science brodcasting.

[Requia ☣]

Discovery channel is like the tabloid news of science brodcasting.

This.  Mythbusters is probably their most educational show, which is saying something.

[Telarus]

It's the Christian ideologues embedded in the upper end of the corporate structure of Discovery Channel. (Srsly, it takes a lot of paying attention, especially to the commercials that run between programs, but it's definitely there.)