Everyone knows seahorses. They swim vertically, which is not typical for fish, but their appearance so memorable that it is difficult to find a person who is not familiar with the profile seahorse. This fish has been known to man since ancient times. He still uses it to this day to prepare medicinal potions for asthma and skin diseases, despite the fishing ban. Of 32 species seahorses 30 are listed in the Red Book.
Among the fish seahorse known for monogamy, i.e. for keeping partners faithful until the end of life. Their courtship during the breeding season is very touching, and the male is in charge of bearing the offspring. An interesting experiment was conducted. One female and two males were placed in the aquarium. After courtship, the female gave preference to one male, to whom she laid her unfertilized eggs. After this, the “pregnant” male was removed to another aquarium. Left alone with another male, although the female paid attention to his advances, it never came to the point of breeding offspring.
Seahorses are the only animals on our planet in which the males carry an unborn baby. To do this, they have a special pouch on their stomach, into which the female lays eggs, and the male fertilizes them with his sperm already inside.
When the first male returned to the aquarium, the female again chose her “first love”, although invitations came from both males equally. Again, after fertilization, the male was removed from the aquarium while the female's behavior was observed. During six reproductive cycles, the female chose only one male.
By the way, childbirth for a male can be very painful, and at the end of it, the seahorse can die, leaving behind up to 1,500 miniature horses.
The high fertility of seahorses, as well as the fact that the fry develop in the “womb” of the father, made their offspring quite tenacious, compared to ordinary “fish” standards. The lion's share of all the offspring of other fish die in the form of eggs, and the small seahorse develops directly inside adult fish. And although out of a thousand fry only 5% will grow up and be able to continue the race, this is compensated by the high fertility of skates. Once the seahorses are in the water, the male stops caring for them, and they set off to swim freely.
Analysis of the structure of the seahorse confirms that this fish evolved from the pipefish about 13 million years ago. Indeed, just one look at the pipefish tells you that it is a “straightened” seahorse. Presumably this split into two species occurred due to the formation of vast areas of shallow waters, which allowed marine forests and coral reefs to become widespread. Living in such areas required the fish to have a protective color. As a result, seahorses acquired green camouflage for their habitat in mangroves. For coral reefs, the color of seahorses is different - bright red and yellow.
Seahorses can also change their color slightly. So, while courting a female, they can acquire the color of the friend they are interested in.
Critically endangered seahorses are very difficult to breed in captivity. It is known that fish locked inside an aquarium go into stressful state and are susceptible to various diseases. Therefore, in captivity, seahorses live only in aquariums that most closely replicate the atmosphere of their natural habitat. In this case, you can count on the appearance of offspring. Use of seahorses as exotic aquarium fish has pushed some people to artificially modify their bodies. To do this, the seahorse's tail is bent in the opposite direction to give the animal a letter shape. S.
Many have seen these sea creatures on TV or in aquariums, but not everyone realizes how surprising they can be Interesting Facts about a seahorse. These beautiful representatives of fish amaze with their unique properties. However, they are very difficult to observe in the wild. Moreover, the number of seahorses in Lately sharply decreased due to the destruction of their habitats.
- Seahorses are the only fish with necks. Scientists have proven that seahorses are relatives of needle fish. True, during evolution their body has changed a lot. Unlike other fish, skates are located vertically in the water due to the fact that the swim bladder is distributed throughout the body. The S-shaped body shape allows skates to successfully hunt from cover. They freeze among the seaweed or reefs, and when a tiny larva swims by, they grab it by turning their heads.
- Skates can ride on fish. Thanks to their curved tail, seahorses can travel long distances. They grab onto the fins of the perch and hold on until the fish swims into the algae thickets. And the skates grab their mate with their tail and swim in an embrace.
- Skates' eyes move independently of each other. The seahorse's organ of vision is similar to the eyes of a chameleon. One eye of these fish can look forward, and the other can see what is happening behind.
- Master of Disguise Skates. The ability to change color depending on location allows seahorses to avoid numerous enemies. Just like chameleons, pipits match the color of their scales to the color of coral or algae, making them almost invisible.
- Seahorses have an excellent appetite. They don't have teeth, they don't even have a stomach. In order not to die, these fish have to eat constantly. With their proboscis, pipits suck in plankton, small larvae and crustaceans. Moreover, this happens so quickly that it is difficult to track.
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- Almost no one eats seahorses. These small fish can become prey for other predators only by accident. They consist almost entirely of bones, spines and scales, so there are few hunters for them, except perhaps stingrays and large crabs.
- Seahorses are susceptible to stress. Stress often poses a mortal danger to seahorses. These fish thrive in clean, calm water. Strong sea motion leads to depletion of their strength. And with a sudden change of location, they may even die. Therefore, it is difficult to breed skates in aquariums; they do not take root well in an artificial environment.
- The female chooses the male herself. We can say that seahorses have a matriarchy. After all, it is the females who decide which male to choose as a spouse.
- Seahorses perform mating dances. For several days, the female performs a kind of dance with her supposed chosen one, rising to the surface of the water and sinking to the bottom, intertwining her tails. If the male lags behind the bride, she will most likely leave him and look for another, more profitable match.
- Male seahorses are "pregnant". If the female has chosen a suitable male, then she remains faithful to him until the end of her life. She entrusts the male with bearing the eggs and caring for the offspring. The female transfers the eggs to a special pouch on the male’s body. There, future skates grow within a month and a half. And then they are born as full-fledged fish. One male can simultaneously produce from 5 to 1.5 thousand fry. However, male seahorses still cannot be called pregnant. After all, fry are not born in their body, but are only kept until full maturity. This is a function of protecting future offspring.
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- Skates are fragile, but tenacious. One in a hundred seahorse fry born survives to become full-fledged adults. This is a very high indicator for fish. It is thanks to this indicator that seahorses have not become extinct to this day.
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- The horse is on the coat of arms of the city of Zaozersk. Several years in a row on the coat of arms Russian city Zaozersk (Murmansk region) a seahorse was depicted. The image was supposed to symbolize the naval power of the Northern Fleet. But, since seahorses are not found in the waters of the Barents Sea, the image of the seahorse was replaced by the image of a dolphin. It should be noted that seahorses are inhabitants of tropical and subtropical salt water bodies. And the most large seas Not all of Russia is included in this list.
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- 30 species of skates are listed in the Red Book. But science knows only 32 species of these fish. There are several reasons for the extinction of seahorses. But almost all of them are related to human activity. In Thailand, Australia, and Malaysia, skates are caught to be dried and used as souvenirs. In oriental medicine they are used to prepare medicines for asthma and skin diseases. In addition, the habitats of seahorses are polluted or completely destroyed by humans. And plankton useful for skates is often eaten by jellyfish, which are favorably affected by climate change.
- Seahorses are a delicacy. A dish using the liver and eyes of seahorses is served in the most expensive restaurants in the world. These parts of skates are considered very tasty and healthy. The cost of the delicacy is on average $800 per serving. And in China, fried skates are served on sticks.
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- Skates have lived on Earth for 40 million years.. Although fossilized seahorses are rare, scientists have proven that these fish have existed for tens of millions of years. They appeared at a time when, as a result of tectonic shifts in the earth's crust, shallows formed in the oceans and algae began to spread.
Seahorses are very peculiar fish with an extraordinary appearance and interesting biology. They belong to the spiny family of the order Stickleback. This affiliation is not accidental, because seahorses, one might say, are the brothers of others interesting fish- sea needles. There are 50 known species of seahorses, several of the largest species are called sea dragons.
Herbal sea Dragon, or ragpiper (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus).
The appearance of seahorses is so unusual that at first glance it is difficult to recognize them as fish. The body of the skates is bizarrely curved, the back sticks out with a hump, the abdomen also protrudes forward, the front part of the body is thin and curved like the neck of a horse (hence the name). The head is small, its front part is elongated like a tube, the eyes are bulging. The tail of seahorses is long and very flexible, calm state fish twist it into a ring or wrap their tail around the stems of aquatic plants. The body of skates is covered with various thickenings, knobs, outgrowths and similar decorations. The coloring of these fish is often monochromatic, but different species are colored very differently. In any case, the coloring of each species very accurately imitates the color and texture of the surface on which this horse lives. Pipits living among aquatic plants are often brown, yellowish, and green; Pipits living among corals can be red, bright yellow, or purple.
Seahorses are fluent in the art of camouflage.
In addition, each fish can change its hue to some extent. Seahorses are small fish, their size varies from 2 to 20 cm.
The smallest species, the dwarf seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti), is only 2 cm long. It is completely indistinguishable from coral branches.
These fish live in tropical and subtropical zones. Their range encircles the entire globe. Seahorses live in shallow waters among thickets seaweed or among the corals. These are sedentary and generally very sedentary fish. Typically, seahorses wrap their tail around a branch of coral or a tuft of sea grass and spend most of their time in this position. But large sea dragons do not know how to attach to vegetation. On short distances they swim holding their body vertically; if they have to leave the “home”, they can swim in an almost horizontal position. They swim slowly. In general, the character of these fish is surprisingly calm and meek; seahorses do not show aggression towards their fellow fish and other fish.
The intricately decorated leafy sea dragon (Phycodurus eques) is indistinguishable from its surroundings.
They feed on plankton. They track the smallest crustaceans by rolling their eyes funny. As soon as the prey approaches the miniature hunter, the seahorse inflates its cheeks, creating negative pressure in the mouth and sucks up the crustacean like a vacuum cleaner. Despite their small size, skates are big eaters and can indulge in gluttony for up to 10 hours a day.
Seahorses are monogamous fish; they live in married pairs, but can periodically change partners. It is characteristic that these fish carry eggs, with males and females changing roles. IN mating season in females, a tube-shaped ovipositor grows, and in the male, thickened folds in the tail area form a pouch. Before spawning, partners perform a long mating dance.
Spawning pair of seahorses.
The female lays eggs in the male's pouch and he carries them for about 2 weeks. Newborn fry emerge from the pouch through a narrow opening. Sea dragons do not have a pouch and hatch eggs on the stem of their tail. Fertility different types ranges from 5 to 1500 fry. Newborn fish are completely independent and move away from the parent pair.
Eggs on the tail of a sea dragon.
Currently, many species of seahorses have become very rare, and some are even on the verge of extinction. This is facilitated by the massive catch of these fish and their low fertility. Seahorses are caught for meat, which is used in the cooking of eastern countries and in oriental medicine. In addition, souvenirs made from dried seahorses are very popular. It is not very easy to keep seahorses in aquariums; they are demanding of food and are susceptible to disease, but it is very interesting to watch them.
The leafy sea dragon broods the eggs.
how a male seahorse gives birth to fry.
Sea Horses(Lat. Hippocampus) is a genus of small marine bony fish of the needlefish family of the order Aciliformes. The number of species is about 50.
The unusual shape of the skate's body resembles chess piece horse Numerous long spines and ribbon-like leathery outgrowths located on the skate’s body make it invisible among the algae and inaccessible to predators. Seahorses range in size from 2 to 30 cm, depending on the species to which a particular individual belongs. Interesting feature seahorses is that their offspring are carried by the male.
Sea Horses live in tropical and subtropical seas. They lead a sedentary lifestyle, attaching their flexible tails to plant stems and changing body color, completely blending into the background. This is how they protect themselves from predators and camouflage themselves while hunting for food. Skates feed on small crustaceans and shrimp. The tubular stigma acts like a pipette - the prey is drawn into the mouth along with water.
Its body is located vertically in the water because the swim bladder is located along the entire body and is divided by a partition that separates the head part from the rest of the body. The head bladder is larger than the abdominal one, which provides the skate with a vertical position when swimming.
Based on anatomical, molecular and genetic studies, the seahorse has been identified as a highly modified pipefish. Fossilized remains of seahorses are quite rare. The most studied fossils of the species Hippocampus guttulatus (synonym - H. ramulosus) from the formations of the Marecchia River (Italian province of Rimini). These finds are dated to the Lower Pliocene (about 3 million years ago). The earliest seahorse fossils are believed to be two Middle Miocene spinyfish species, Hippocampus sarmaticus and Hippocampus slovenicus, discovered in Slovenia. Their age is estimated at 13 million years. According to the molecular clock method, the seahorse and pipefish species diverged in the late Oligocene. There is a theory that this genus appeared in response to the emergence of large areas of shallow waters, which was caused by tectonic events. The appearance of vast shallows led to the spread of algae, and, as a result, the animals living in this environment.
Seahorses reproduce differently than other animals. During the mating season, the male swims up to the female, both fish press against each other, and at this moment the male opens his pocket wide, and the female throws several eggs into it. Subsequently, the male skate bears the offspring. Pipits are very prolific animals, and the number of embryos borne in a male's pouch ranges from 2 to 1000 or more individuals. Ordinary sea Horse can live four to five years. Seahorses navigate by the ebb and flow of the tides, when strong currents can carry away the fry. During the breeding season, fry hatch every 4 weeks. Immediately after birth, they are left to their own devices. The fry of some species move with the current, while others remain at the place of birth.
Nowadays, seahorses are on the verge of extinction - their numbers are rapidly declining. 30 species of skate fish out of 32 known to science are listed in the Red Book. There are many reasons for this, one of them is the massive catching of pipits off the coast of Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. The exotic appearance of the fish has meant that people use them as souvenirs and gifts. For the sake of beauty, their tail is artificially bent so as to give the body an “S” shape. In fact, such species of fish do not exist in nature - this is a human whim. Only great fertility saves skates from extinction: some species give birth to more than a thousand babies at a time.
A separate point in the destruction of the seahorse population is the fact that the taste of these fish is valued by gourmets. According to them, the liver and eyes of seahorses are quite tasty, although they have laxative properties. The dish is served with a fig leaf and costs up to $800 per serving in the most expensive seaside restaurants.
Although many have seen seahorses in private aquariums or on television, it is quite difficult to observe these fish in the wild because they are small and quite rare. They are worth protecting because they are a beautiful, but fragile and vulnerable species, and if people destroy reefs and other habitats, they will put seahorses in danger of extinction.
They are the only fish on Earth with a neck.
They have a very tenacious tail, with which they can lasso a perch and thus move around.
Seahorses' eyes are similar to those of chameleons and can move independently of each other.
The scales of these fish can become “invisible” - merge with the environment.
Their stigma acts like a vacuum cleaner - they simply suck up plankton to eat.
The very appearance of these fish evokes pleasant associations with childhood, toys and fairy tales. The horse swims in an upright position and tilts its head so gracefully that, looking at it, it is impossible not to compare it with some small magical horse.
It is covered not with scales, but with bone plates. However, in his shell he is so light and fast that he literally floats in the water, and his body shimmers with all colors - from orange to dove-blue, from lemon yellow to fiery red. Judging by the brightness of its colors, this fish can be compared with tropical birds.
Seahorses inhabit the coastal waters of tropical and subtropical seas. But they are also found in the North Sea, for example, off the southern coast of England. They choose quieter places; They don't like the turbulent current.
Among them there are dwarfs the size of a little finger, and there are giants about thirty centimeters. The smallest species, Hippocampus zosterae (dwarf seahorse), is found in the Gulf of Mexico. Its length does not exceed four centimeters, and the body is very hardy.
In Black and Mediterranean seas You can find the long-faced, spotted Hippocampus guttulatus, whose length reaches 12-18 centimeters. The most famous are representatives of the species Hippocampus kuda, which lives off the coast of Indonesia. Seahorses of this species (their length is 14 centimeters) are brightly and variegatedly colored, some with specks, others with stripes. The largest seahorses are found near Australia.
Whether they are dwarfs or giants, seahorses look alike like brothers: a trusting look, capricious lips and an elongated “horse” muzzle. Their tail is curved towards the belly, and their head is decorated with horns. Confuse these graceful and colorful fish, similar to jewelry or toys, is impossible with any inhabitant of the water element.
How does pregnancy proceed in males?
Even now, zoologists find it difficult to say how many species of seahorses there are. Possibly 30-32 species, although this figure may be subject to change. The fact is that seahorses are difficult to classify. Their appearance is too changeable. And they know how to hide in such a way that a needle thrown into a haystack would be jealous.
When Amanda Vincent of Montreal's McGill University began studying seahorses in the late 1980s, she was frustrated: "At first I couldn't even notice the little ones." Masters of mimicry, in a moment of danger they change their color, repeating the color of surrounding objects. Therefore, they are easily mistaken for algae. Many seahorses, like gutta-percha dolls, can even change their body shape. They develop small growths and nodules. Some seahorses can be difficult to distinguish from corals.
This plasticity, this “color music” of the body helps them not only fool their enemies, but also seduce their partners. German zoologist Ruediger Verhasselt shares his observations: “I had a pink-red male in my aquarium. I placed a bright yellow female with red speckles next to him. The male began to take care of the new fish and after a few days it turned the same color as it - even red specks appeared.”
To watch enthusiastic pantomimes and colorful confessions, you need to go underwater early in the morning. Only in the pre-dawn twilight (however, sometimes in the sunset hours) seahorses wander in pairs through the underwater thickets of algae, this sea jungle. In their confessions, they follow a funny etiquette: they nod their heads, greeting their friend, while clinging to neighboring plants with their tails. Sometimes they freeze when they come together in a “kiss.” Or they whirl around in a stormy love dance, and the males constantly inflate their bellies.
The date is over - and the fish swim away to the sides. Adju! Until next time! Seahorses usually live in monogamous pairs, loving each other to the death, which they often have in the form of nets. After the death of a partner, his half misses him, but after a few days or weeks he finds a partner again. Seahorses housed in an aquarium are particularly affected by the loss of a partner. And it happens that they die one after another, unable to bear the grief.
What is the secret of such affection? Kindred spirits? Here's how biologists explain it: By regularly walking and petting each other, seahorses synchronize their biological clocks. This helps them choose the most appropriate moment for procreation. Then their meeting drags on for several hours, or even days. They glow with excitement and spin in a dance in which, as we remember, the males inflate their bellies. It turns out that the male has a wide fold on his stomach where the female lays her eggs.
Surprisingly, in seahorses the offspring is carried by the male, having previously fertilized the eggs in the abdominal pouch.
But such behavior is not as exotic as it might seem. There are also other species of fish, for example, cichlids, in which the eggs are hatched by males. But only in seahorses do we deal with a process similar to pregnancy. Fabric on inside The brood pouch in the male thickens, as in the uterus of mammals. This tissue becomes a kind of placenta; it connects the father's body with the embryos and nourishes them. This process is controlled by the hormone prolactin, which stimulates lactation in humans - the formation of mother's milk.
With the onset of pregnancy, walks in underwater forests stop. The male stays in an area of about one square meter. In order not to compete with him in obtaining food, the female delicately swims to the side.
After a month and a half, “birth” occurs. The seahorse presses against the seaweed stalk and inflates its belly again. Sometimes a whole day passes before the first fry slips out of the bag and into the wild. Then the young will begin to emerge in pairs, faster and faster, and soon the bag will expand so much that dozens of fry will swim out of it at the same time. The number of newborns varies among species: some seahorses hatch up to 1,600 babies, while others give birth to only two fry.
Sometimes the “birth” is so difficult that the males die from exhaustion. In addition, if for some reason the embryos die, then the male who carried them will also die.
Evolution cannot explain the origin of the seahorse's reproductive functions. The whole process of childbearing is too “unorthodox”. Indeed, the structure of the seahorse appears to be a mystery if you try to explain it as a result of evolution. As one leading expert said several years ago: “In terms of evolution, the seahorse is in the same category as the platypus. Because he is a mystery that confuses and destroys all theories trying to explain the origin of this fish! Recognize the Divine Creator, and everything will be explained.”
What do seahorses do if they're not flirting or expecting offspring? One thing is certain: they do not shine with success in swimming, which is not surprising given their constitution. They have; only three small fins: the dorsal one helps to swim forward, and two gill fins maintain vertical balance and serve as a rudder. In a moment of danger, seahorses can briefly speed up their movement, flapping their fins up to 35 times per second (some scientists even call the number “70”). They are much better at vertical maneuvers. By changing the volume of the swim bladder, these fish move up and down in a spiral.
However, most of the time the seahorse hangs motionless in the water, its tail hooked on algae, coral, or even the neck of a relative. It looks like he's ready to hang around all day. However, despite his apparent laziness, he manages to catch a lot of prey - tiny crustaceans and fry. Only recently was it possible to observe how this happens.
The seahorse does not rush after prey, but waits until it swims to it. Then he draws in water, swallowing the careless small fry. Everything happens so quickly that the naked eye cannot notice it. However, scuba diving enthusiasts say that when approaching a seahorse, you sometimes hear the sound of smacking. The appetite of this fish is amazing: as soon as it is born, the seahorse manages to swallow about four thousand miniature shrimp in the first ten hours of life.
In total, he is destined to live, if he’s lucky, four to five years. Enough time to leave behind millions of descendants. It seems that with such numbers, seahorses are assured of prosperity. However, it is not. Out of a thousand fry, on average, only two survive. All the rest themselves fall into someone's mouth. However, in this whirlwind of births and deaths, seahorses have been staying afloat for forty million years. Only human intervention can destroy this species.
According to the World Fund wildlife, the number of seahorses is rapidly declining. Thirty species of these fish are included in the Red Book, that is, almost all species known to science. Ecology is primarily to blame for this. The world's oceans are turning into a global dump. Its inhabitants are degenerating and dying out.
Half a century ago, the Chesapeake Bay was a narrow, long bay off the coast American states Maryland and Virginia (its length reaches 270 kilometers) were considered a real paradise for seahorses. Now you can hardly find them there. Alison Scarratt, director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, estimates that ninety percent of the bay's algae have died in the past half century, due to water pollution. But there were algae natural environment seahorse habitat.
Another reason for the decline is the massive catching of seahorses off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. According to Amanda Vincent, at least 26 million of these fish are caught every year. A small part of them then end up in aquariums, and the majority die. For example, these cute fish are dried and used to make souvenirs - brooches, key rings, belt buckles. By the way, for the sake of beauty, their tail is bent back, giving the body the shape of the letter S.
However, most of the seahorses caught - about twenty million, according to the World Wildlife Fund - end up with pharmacists in China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. The largest transshipment point for the sale of this “medical raw material” is Hong Kong. From here it is sold to more than thirty countries, including India and Australia. Here, a kilogram of seahorses costs about $1,300.
From these dried fish, crushed and mixed with other substances, for example with tree bark, drugs are prepared that are as popular in Japan, Korea, and China as here - aspirin or analgin. They help with asthma, cough, headaches and especially with impotence. Recently, this Far Eastern “Viagra” has become popular in Europe.
However, even ancient authors knew that medicines could be prepared from seahorses. Thus, Pliny the Elder (24-79) wrote that in case of hair loss, one should use an ointment prepared from a mixture of dried seahorses, marjoram oil, resin and lard. In 1754, the English Gentlemen's Magazine advised nursing mothers to take seahorse extract "for the better flow of milk." Of course, old recipes can make you smile, but it is carried out now World organization health research " healing properties seahorse."
Meanwhile, Amanda Vincent and a number of biologists advocate a complete ban on the uncontrolled harvesting and trade of seahorses, trying to put an end to predatory fishing, as they managed to do with whaling. The situation is that in Asia, seahorses are caught mainly by poachers. To put an end to this, the researcher created the Project Seahorse organization back in 1986, which is trying to protect seahorses in Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines, as well as establish a civilized trade in them. Things are especially successful on the Philippine island of Handayan.
Residents of the local village of Handumon have been harvesting seahorses for centuries. However, in just ten years, from 1985 to 1995, their catches decreased by almost 70 percent. Therefore, the seahorse rescue program proposed by Amanda Vincent was perhaps the only hope for fishermen.
To begin with, it was decided to create a protected area with a total area of thirty-three hectares, where fishing was completely prohibited. There, all the seahorses were counted and even numbered, putting a collar on them. From time to time, divers looked into this water area and checked whether the “lazy couch potatoes”, seahorses, had swum away from here.
It was agreed that males with full brood pouches would not be caught outside the protected area. If they were caught in the net, they were thrown back into the sea. In addition, environmentalists tried to replant mangroves and underwater algae forests - the natural shelters of these fish.
Since then, the number of seahorses and other fish in the vicinity of Handumon has stabilized. Especially many seahorses inhabit the protected area. In turn, in other Philippine villages, having made sure that things have improved for their neighbors, they also follow this example. Three more protected areas have been created in which seahorses are bred.
They are also grown on special farms. However, there are problems here. So, scientists do not yet know what diet is best for seahorses.
In some zoos - in Stuttgart, Berlin, Basel, as well as in the National Aquarium in Baltimore and the California Aquarium, breeding of these fish is successful. Perhaps they can be saved.
In the seas washing Russia, there are only two species of seahorses (although the species diversity of seahorses is great, in total there are 32 species of seahorses in different seas of the world). These are the Black Sea seahorse and the Japanese seahorse. The first one lives in Black and Seas of Azov, and the second is in Japanese.
“Our” seahorses are small and do not have luxurious long outgrowths all over their bodies, like, for example, the raghorse that lives in warm seas and masquerading as thickets of Sargassum algae. Their shell modestly performs a protective function: it is very strong and is usually colored to match the background color.
In the seahorse, the Creator's plan is clearly and clearly manifested. But the fossil record poses another problem for those who believe in evolution. To support the idea that the seahorse is the product of evolution over millions of years, proponents of this theory need fossils that show the gradual development of a lower form of animal life into a more complex shape seahorse. But, to the great regret of evolutionists, “no fossilized seahorses have been discovered.”
Like the multitude of creatures that fill the seas, skies and land, the seahorse has no link that can connect it with any other form of life. Like all major types of living creatures, the complex seahorse was created suddenly, as the book of Genesis tells us.