Seahorses are not exactly Olympic swimmers—in fact, they're considered to be particularly poor swimmers. Despite being relatively slow, however, they are adept at preying on small, quick-moving animals. In a new study conducted at Tel Aviv University, researchers have succeeded in characterizing the incredible preying capability of seahorses, discovering that they can move their head up at the incredible speed of 0.002 seconds. The rapid head movement is accompanied by a powerful flow of […]

Supplying oxygen to their growing offspring and removing carbon dioxide is a major challenge for every pregnant animal. Humans deal with this problem by developing a placenta, but in seahorses—where the male, not the female, gestates and gives birth to the young—exactly how it worked hasn't always been so clear.

Citizen scientist volunteers known as the "storm squad" collected seagrass fragments to successfully rehabilitate populations of NSW's endangered Posidonia australis.

Seadragons (Phyllopetryx taeniolatus) live off the coast in western and southern Australia. An international team involving evolutionary biologist Axel Meyer from the University of Konstanz has now found the genetic basis for some external characteristics of the seadragon, like its lack of teeth and its distinct leaf-like appendages. The team also localized the sex-determination gene in the seadragon genome. The study will be published in Science Advances on 18 August 2021.

Seahorses have long been a popular attraction in public aquariums, but they remain mysterious. They are a fish with a difference in that they swim in an upright, vertical position. They have flexible necks and long, tubular snouts that point downward, giving them the appearance of a horse's head. Their lower bodies form a flexible, prehensile tail, which is square in outline and can wrap around objects. There are at least 47 known species, all belonging to the genus Hippocampus, a Greek term […]