Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime by Ellen Prager

Author:Ellen Prager
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2011-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

6 Cabinet of Curiosities

The diversity and abundance of life beneath the waves is bewildering, and some of the oddest creatures are among the more than sixteen thousand species of fishes that inhabit the oceans. They are wondrous animals that challenge our minds and evoke provocative questions about evolution and adaptation, or that just make us shake our heads and stare in unabashed incredulity. If not their looks, it might be their lifestyles, behaviors or peculiar sex habits that are odd, yet strangely fascinating. There are a seemingly endless variety of curiosities under the sea, and many of them are fish.

AN UNDERSEA COMBO-PACK

Can there be a weirder animal in the oceans than one that combines the head of a horse, the pouch of a kangaroo, a chameleon’s swiveling eyes, and the prehensile tail of a monkey? One that also has armor, color-changing skin, and four tiny, translucent fins that beat almost imperceptibly. And in a unique swap of reproductive responsibilities, in this creature it is the male that endures pregnancy’s bulge and experiences the agonies of childbirth. The seahorse is an enigmatic creature, and even more so because it is a fish.

Seahorses have fascinated humans for thousands of years. They were once thought to be the offspring of the steeds of the mythical god Poseidon, and later they stymied scientists, who weren’t sure how to catalogue them. Were they insects, amphibians, or an odd shrimp-like crustacean? Seahorses eventually became classified as bony fishes, with characteristic swim bladders to aid in buoyancy, and tiny, stiff, and articulated spines, as well as gills for breathing. They are also armored with interlocking plates overlain by skin with pigmented chromatophores that enable color change and camouflage (plate 15).

There are at least thirty-nine species of seahorses recognized to date. They range in size from the less than 2 centimeters-long (inch-long) pygmy seahorse to the big-belly species standing almost 30 centimeters (a foot) tall. Seahorses are variously colored and may sport spikes, knobs, or zebra stripes. They live mainly within coral reefs or seagrass beds or among the roots of mangroves. These very unfishlike fishes are typically solitary creatures that spend most of their time sitting quietly upright with their prehensile, monkey-like tail wrapped around an appropriate hold, such as a blade of seagrass or sponge. But even when sitting quietly, seahorses are actually quite active, constantly scanning their surroundings for food with eyes that can rotate independently of one another, swiveling like a gunner’s turret. Their long, toothless, horsey snouts act like powerful slurp guns to suck in the sea’s tiny crustaceans, and they can maneuver from one perch to the next or shift position ever so slightly using their small, rapidly beating fins. The seahorses’ wispy fins also come into play when dancing seductively for a mate.

The pairing of two seahorses begins with a nose-to-nose greeting and a graceful courtship in which they perform a spiraling ballet about one another. They may also blush colorfully, bow their heads, swim in synchrony, and flirtatiously entwine their tails.

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