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The First Oddity In Evolutionary History—Seahorse

By Ashley Davis Wed, Jul 24, 2024

PHOTO: Yueke

Magical Animal Seahorse

The scientific name of seahorse, Hippocampus, comes from ancient Greek, which means horse and sea monster. In Greek mythology, the god with the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish comes from the seahorse.


PHOTO: Yueke

Europeans believe that the souls of sailors who encountered shipwrecks were trapped on the bottom of the sea, and it was the seahorse that took their souls to the underworld, so that they could rest in peace. In some superhero movies, seahorses appear as mounts of the underwater kingdom. These are the impressions of seahorses in Western culture.


PHOTO: Yueke

In the impression of Chinese culture, seahorses are similar to Chinese dragons, and its relative, the sea dragon, is more similar to the Chinese dragon. Seahorses are called the illegitimate son of dragons in Japanese, and they believe that seahorses have half the blood of dragons.


PHOTO: Yueke

The stereotype of seahorses seems to be very majestic, but the reality of seahorses is not like this. There are 55 species of seahorses in the ocean, the largest seahorse is only 36 cm, and the smallest seahorse is only 1.4 cm.


PHOTO: Yueke

The swimming speed of seahorses is also very slow. Seahorses are a kind of fish, but the fins have basically degenerated, and the swimming speed is not fast. It is the slowest fish in the Guinness World Records. Its scales have also degenerated, and it is surrounded by layers of bone plates as a defense. The tail fin has changed into a tail, which can grab objects and prevent being swept away by the water.


PHOTO: Yueke

The mouth of the seahorse is like a straw, sucking food into its stomach along with seawater, which is very convenient. This way of eating evolved due to the food it hunts: plankton, an important part of the ocean. These plankton can dodge by sensing the water flow, and the reaction speed is very fast at 900 meters per second. In order to prey on these plankton, seahorses first approach them at a very slow speed, and then use their slender mouths to suck the plankton into their stomachs. They will not cause any fluctuations when they attack quickly, so that the plankton will not react.


PHOTO: Yueke

Seahorses have no organs to store food, so they have to eat all the time. They can eat about 3,000 small fish, shrimps and plankton a day. But when food is scarce, seahorses can survive hunger because they consume very little energy in movement.
One difference between seahorses and other animals is that seahorses are bred by their fathers. Male seahorses have a brood pouch where females need to lay their eggs. The pouch provides a suitable place, nutrition and shelter until one day, the male seahorse lays the offspring. These baby seahorses are born complete. This method of reproduction is called ovoviviparity, and theoretically the survival rate is quite high.
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Giant 6,000-pound sunfish sets world record as largest bony fish: report

A giant ocean sunfish weighing more than 6,000 pounds was found in Portugal, setting a record for being the largest bony fish known to man, according to a recent report. The deceased fish was discovered afloat near Faial Island, a Portuguese island located within the Azores archipelago of the central North Atlantic, according to the Atlantic Naturalist Association, a nonprofit conservation research and education organization for the Atlantic Region. <div><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1938740305510749" data-ad-slot="5887723986" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins></div> The ocean-monitoring organization’s press release, dated Oct. 13, 2022, states the record-breaking fish was found on Dec. 9, 2021, and weighed 6,049.48 pounds (2,744 kilograms). It also measured about 11.8 feet (3.59 meters) in height and 10.7 feet (3.25 meters) in length, according to the Atlantic Naturalist’s report, which was recently published in the Journal of Fish Biology. Researchers from the Atlantic Naturalist Association and Azores University conducted a stomach content search and DNA analysis to gather biometrical and morphological data from the dead sunfish, but the fish’s sex couldn’t be determined, according to the Atlantic Naturalist’s six-page report. The sunfish is a Mola alexandrini variety, also known as a Ramsay's sunfish, southern ocean sunfish, or bump-head sunfish in many parts of the world, according to the Australian Museum. Mola alexandrini are typically found in temperate and tropical waters in the Southern Hemisphere, the museum reports, though some might inhabit or swim to the Northern Hemisphere. The southern species falls under the larger Molidae family, which is colloquially known as ocean sunfish or mola mola, according to FishBase, a global fish species database. Ocean sunfish are reportedly distinguished by their short bodies that abruptly end behind their dorsal and anal fins, giving them a half-fish appearance. The fish also have skeletal bones instead of cartilage, as seen in sharks and rays, and can weigh hundreds or thousands of pounds, according to National Geographic. Classification profiles on FishBase list the overall ocean sunfish population as "vulnerable" and the Mola alexandrini population as having "very high vulnerability." The dead sunfish found in 2021 had a "white coloration and punctured eyes" and a "large contusion" on the right side of its head with "remains of brick red antifouling paint" that are typically found on keelboats, but it's not known if the injury occurred before or after death, the Atlantic Naturalist Association’s published report states. &nbsp; &nbsp; "The cause of death remains uncertain," Atlantic Naturalist wrote. The organization noted that the Mola alexandrini sunfish found in Portugal beat the previous Mola alexandrini sunfish world record from 1996, which was found in Kamogawa, Japan, and weighed approximately 5,070.6 pounds (2,300 kilograms). Guinness World Records has yet to update its "heaviest bony fish" record online. "These findings not only help us understand the role of invertebrate feeding species in marine ecosystems, but also show that the ocean is still healthy enough to support the world's largest animals," Atlantic Naturalist wrote in its press release. "However, they raise concerns about the need for additional conservation measures regarding ocean pollution and habitat protection."