{"id":88476,"date":"2026-02-18T13:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=88476"},"modified":"2026-02-18T15:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:36:34","slug":"alpheus-madhusoodanai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/alpheus-madhusoodanai\/","title":{"rendered":"Alpheus Madhusoodanai"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Alpheus Madhusoodanai Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers recently discovered a new species of pistol shrimp named Alpheus madhusoodanai in the Kochi backwaters.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Alpheus Madhusoodanai<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a new species of <\/span><b>pistol shrimp<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, also known as <\/span><b>snapping shrimp.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was discovered from <\/span><b>Kochi backwaters, Kerala.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It belongs to the family Alpheidae.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the first alpheid shrimp species to be recorded from an estuary in the region.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In local waters, they occur in small numbers and are often caught in stake nets.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a<\/span><b> burrowing tendency<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>contributes to the health of mangrove ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><b>releasing toxic gases trapped in swampy soil.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Key Facts about Pistol Shrimp<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pistol shrimp, also known as the snapping shrimp, possesses an <\/span><b>extraordinary weapon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 an <\/span><b>oversized claw <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that can \u201c<\/span><b>fire\u201d underwater bullets made of bubbles.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These aren\u2019t ordinary bubbles \u2014 they\u2019re <\/span><b>created through a process called sonoluminescence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cin which <\/span><b>water is energised with specific vibrations<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> causing <\/span><b>emission of light through bubbles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>resulting temperatures can reach<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an astounding <\/span><b>4,400\u00b0C<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 nearly as <\/span><b>hot as the surface of the sun.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>sounds produced<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when the <\/span><b>pistols <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of these shrimps are fired are among the<\/span><b> loudest sounds <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that can be heard in the oceans.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The sound reaches an incredible 218 decibels \u2014 <\/span><b>louder than a gunshot<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, typically around 140-175 decibels.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pistol shrimp primarily <\/span><b>uses this powerful weapon to catch prey.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When hunting, it <\/span><b>hides in its burrow, waiting for prey <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to come within range before <\/span><b>firing its claw <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with remarkable speed and precision.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0There are hundreds of species found all over the world, but<\/span><b> most species <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are found in <\/span><b>reefs and seagrass beds in temperate and tropical regions.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/kochi\/cusat-study-finds-new-shrimp-species-in-kochi-backwaters\/articleshow\/128477398.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alpheus madhusoodanai is a new species of pistol shrimp, also known as snapping shrimp. Read more about Alpheus Madhusoodanai Species, Discovery, Habitat, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":88469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5520,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-88476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-alpheus-madhusoodanai","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88476"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88506,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88476\/revisions\/88506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}