Scientists have unlocked some of the genetic secrets of the weird and wondrous seahorse, including its exotic eccentricity of male pregnancy.
Researchers said on Wednesday they sequenced the genome of a seahorse species for the first time and identified the genetic underpinning for certain peculiarities in this equine-looking fish group that inhabits coastal waters around the world.
Seahorses boast a host of oddities. Males, not females, carry and give birth to babies. They swim upright, not horizontally. They have horse-like heads, tube-like snouts and no teeth. They have grasping tails to grip sea grasses and corals to avoid being swept away by currents.