As humans, our eyes contain 3 different types of cones (red, blue, and green). With these we can see around 1 million different colors.

But Mantis Shrimp have 16 different types of cones in their eyes! And with those 16 cones they can see a whopping… 16 colors.

While our brains allow us to mix and match the different bands of light our eyes detect in order to “see” a wide variety of colors, Mantis Shrimp lack that ability. What they detect is what they get, there’s no neural post processing, or at least not any that allow the perception of mixed colors.