Our Coast to Coral Community Lecture series is back for 2019! Come and join Reef Check Australia and friends at Underwater World Sealife - Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast, Australiafor an evening of discovery, inspiration and appreciation of our local marine, coastal and catchment environments. Each month we have a new, interesting and engaging speaker.

This month we'll hear from Miriam Henz about Mantis Shrimps. Miriam is a researcher at the Queensland Brain Institute of the University of Queensland. She studied at the University of Tübingen in Germany, earned her PhD at the University of Zürich in Switzerland and did a postdoc at Lund University in Sweden and finally escaped the long Scandinavian winters by moving down under.

Mantis shrimp (stomatopod crustaceans) are some of the most violent and beautiful creatures in the sea. Being ferocious fighters, they can strike with the same acceleration as a gunshot, making the water boil and producing a destructive shockwave. Learn (more) about spearers and smashers and how they evolved. Get to know caring partners, devoted mums, and bizarre, transparent larvae called ‘spiny balloons’, ‘flying saucers’, and ‘gnome hats’ drifting in the ocean currents. 

Arthropods have evolved sophisticated eyes, but small brains compared to vertebrates (like us) or cephalopods (like octopus). Miriam’s current research addresses questions such as: How do arthropods make sense of complex visual information from the environment without much computing power? Do they use the same processing strategies as their ‘brainy’ relatives? Are the small brains of arthropods one of the reasons for their enormous diversity of eye designs?

The talk will be held in the Seal Stadium at SEALIFE Mooloolaba, on Parkyn Parade, Mooloolaba. Doors open at 6:15 pm for a 6:30 pm start. Stay after the event for a discussion with the presenter and other attendees and enjoy a pizza-rific snack.

6:15: Grab a seat
6:30: Talk kicks-off
7:15: Pizza & good sea-minded conversation!

Entry is $2 (which gets you pizza at the end).

RSVP at our Facebook event page.

This initiative is hosted by Reef Check Australia, and proudly supported by Sunshine Coast Council's Environment Levy partnerships grant and the June Canavan Foundation with amazing in-kind support from SEA LIFE Sunshine Coast.