Covert Creatures: The Clandestine Lives of Seahorses
Here's a lovely story about the science behind seahorses. Humans try to unravel the seahorse mystery. Can land dwellers ever understand the arcane power of the sea?
Dr. Helen Scales knows about as much as any dry person.
Generally what is agreed is that there are around 39 or 40 species of seahorses.
Seahorses are everywhere!
The chances are, if you go to a piece of coastline, and your toes aren’t completely freezing when you dip them in the sea, you might see a seahorse. They live along most of the coastlines.
They have this reputation for being this wonderful exotic creature but they do live all the way through the oceans.
They get pretty big.
The biggest is the Big-belly seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis) from Australia. They are a foot long from head to tail. The smallest ones are these pygmy seahorses [there are nine species], which can be just infinitesimally small, less than an inch. They would stretch out on a penny; they are really tiny. On average, most seahorse species are around two or three inches long.
Here are some more fun facts:
Seahorses have the honor of being the only fish in the seas that have a neck.
If you watch a seahorse, you’ll see that it puff its cheeks in and out. That’s it breathing.
You can come back to the same spot and, three years later, see the same seahorse sitting there.
It’s the men that get pregnant, not the girls. Seahorses are the only animal we have ever found throughout the animal kingdom in which this happens.
They will dance these beautiful, mesmerizing courtship dances together. They twine their tails and spin round and round while [both] he male and female change their skin to different colors.
Seahorses have skin, not scales. That’s another strange seahorse fact. Most fish have scales but seahorses just have skin.
Seahorses have VORTEX power!
Seahorse can line up that snout with a tiny minute shrimp and then all of a sudden it sucks in a vortex of water through its mouth with those big cheeks, and the shrimp comes with it, and before it knows it, it’s become a seahorse snack.
Despite all her book learning, Dr. Scales acknowledges that human learning fails to encompass the glory of the seahorse!
There’s so much we still don’t know about seahorses.
Go forth, and embrace the majesty of the horses of the sea!
Seahorse sea powers will never fully be understood by mere land dwellers. Fact: there is no proof that seahorses don't have psychic powers. Fact: sea horses don't brag to the dolphins that they in fact could be smarter. The Humble Seahorse!
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