Hippocampus histrix

The thorny or spiny seahorse is credited to Kaup in 1856.https://www.iucn-seahorse.org/seahorses-seadragons Their scientific name is Latin for "porcupine", of which the Romans knew through their porcupine. They aren't particularly more spiny than other seahorses,https://projectseahorse.org/iseahorse/explore/species/ and there are plenty of species that are way spikier than them. They are wrongly credited as the Long-snouted seahorse by Gbif, but when spelled with a "y", is designated as the correct species.https://www.gbif.org/species/5201038https://www.gbif.org/species/5201045 Additionally it seems that many seahorse species that are caught in trawl catched are reported as "spiny seahorse" (or Hippocampus histrix, I'm not sure whether they use common or scientific names to report bycatch). This would mean that the status concerns of all other seahorses are jeopardized and frankly, wrong, as no one knows how many of them are caught, despite the IUCN's official status.https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/102823-Hippocampus-histrix It's given a wide range by the IUCN and Fishbase- all over the Indian Ocean from southeastern Russia all the way down to the Solomon Islands, the westwards around Seychelles and the eastern coast of Africa, and also Hawai'i.https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10070/54905206https://www.fishbase.ca/summary/Hippocampus-histrix.html Either this is a very adaptable species which must have a series of undocumented subspecies adapted to these specific climates, or many people are confusing various seahorse species for H. histrix. It's listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.
== References ==
Category:Seahorses