PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rickesh N. Patel
AU  - Thomas W. Cronin
TI  - Landmark navigation in a mantis shrimp
AID  - 10.1101/2020.03.12.988741
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.03.12.988741
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/12/2020.03.12.988741.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/12/2020.03.12.988741.full
AB  - Mantis shrimp are predatory crustaceans that commonly occupy burrows in shallow, tropical waters worldwide. Most of these animals inhabit structurally complex, benthic environments where many potential landmarks are available. Mantis shrimp of the species Neogonodactylus oerstedii return to their burrows between foraging excursions using path integration, a vector-based navigational strategy that is prone to accumulated error. Here we show that N. oerstedii can navigate using landmarks in parallel with their path integration system, offseting error generated when navigating using solely path integration. We also report that when the path integration and landmark navigation systems are placed in conflict, N. oerstedii will orient using either system or even switch systems enroute. How they make the decision to trust one navigational system over another is unclear. These findings add to our understanding of the refined navigational toolkit N. oerstedii relies upon to efficiently navigate back to its burrow, complementing its robust, yet error prone, path integration system with landmark guidance.