Q 01/05

Shrimp usually swim forward by paddling their swimmerets, but how do they escape danger?

A) Flicking the tail to shoot backwards

B) Inflating and floating upward

C) Sprinting on their walking legs

D) Jetting water from the gills

Answer · why

A) Flicking the tail to shoot backwards

Flicking the tail to shoot backwards is a reflex, not a decision: giant nerve fibres fire the tail muscles in a split second. Lobsters and crayfish es...

Q 02/05

Shrimp are decapods, a name that literally means what?

A) Head-footed

B) Ten-footed

C) Stomach-footed

D) Joint-footed

Answer · why

B) Ten-footed

Ten-footed, from the Greek, counts the five pairs of walking legs that shrimp share with crabs and lobsters. Squid were once called decapods too, for ...

Q 03/05

Why do grey raw shrimp turn pink when they are cooked?

A) Blood rushes to the shell

B) Sugars in the shell caramelise

C) Heat frees a red pigment

D) Iron in the flesh oxidises

Answer · why

C) Heat frees a red pigment

Heat frees a red pigment called astaxanthin, which a shell protein keeps wrapped up and dull while the animal is alive. Cooking unravels the protein, ...

Q 04/05

Which of these is true of the names 'shrimp' and 'prawn'?

A) Prawn means a female shrimp

B) Neither has a fixed scientific meaning

C) Shrimp have claws, prawns don't

D) Prawns are the freshwater ones

Answer · why

B) Neither has a fixed scientific meaning

Neither has a fixed scientific meaning: big commercial species tend to be shrimp in the US and prawns in Britain and Australia, and taxonomists say th...

Q 05/05

Dictionaries link the word 'shrimp' to old Germanic words with which meaning?

A) To swim backwards

B) To nip or pinch

C) To shrink or contract

D) To leap or dart

Answer · why

C) To shrink or contract

To shrink or contract is the likely root, shared with 'scrimp', and an Old Norse cousin meant a thin person. English has called a puny person a shrimp...