New Kids on the Block: How Scientists Identify New Species | Dive Training Magazine May 13, 2004 New Kids on the Block: How Scientists Identify New Species Go Back To The Library > Marine Life > New Kids on the Block: How Scientists Identify New Species Library Dive Shop Locator The picture didn’t match the name. The small red sea horse didn’t look like a juvenile pygmy sea horse even if that’s what the photographer said it was, and even if it was found on a gorgonian fan, which is where you’d find a pygmy sea horse if you were inclined to look for one. But there was no bulbous snout, or tubercles, or three rings on the tail, all of which you’d expect to see in a Hippocampus bargibanti. Well, then, if it’s not H. bargibanti, what is it? If you’re a taxonomist, you worry about these things. Especially when you’re writing a sea horse identification guide. So there sat sea horse scientists Sara Lourie, Amanda Vincent, and Heather Hall, with a bunch of questions and no answers — and no Corpus dilecti to examine as evidence.

It’s no wonder that several years later, while doing field work for her doctoral dissertation in Indonesia, Lourie couldn’t help but look for the little buggers. Imagine her surprise when she found several hiding among the branches of gorgonian sea fans. Then imagine when she discovered the smallest of them was pregnant. Well, now. These aren’t juvenile anything. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Hippocampus denise, the world’s newest sea horse — and, at less than 2 cm from nose to tail — also its smallest. “I always imagined all the species in the world had been named,” says Lourie, who earned the honor of naming the new critter after Denise Tackett, the underwater photographer who sent that curious picture. “But there are quite a few out there that haven’t been identified yet.” Apparently so — discovering a new species is surprisingly common these days, given that only a handful of scientists are actually looking to add to the rolls of living creatures. Within the past two years, new species of coral, fish, phytoplankton, giant jellyfish, and a whale — yes, a whale — have been discovered. Some, such as H. denise, were there all along; they were just misidentified.

Others swam under the radar until a particularly observant scientist happened to be in the right place at the right time. As a result, between 200 and 300 new species of fishes are “described” in the scientific literature each year, thereby officially becoming a new species. But that’s only a fraction of the unidentified species that are actually collected. The difference comes from the strict process scientists like Lourie have to go through to ensure that what they’re looking at isn’t a rose by any other name. It also says something about how we think about natural science. Naming Names The act of naming plants and animals was formalized in the 18th century, and it’s traced back to Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. As his colleagues scoured the world on their historic voyages of discovery and collection, Linnaeus and other scientists at European universities were left to name the array of creatures and plants. Considering that even common plants often had more than one “scientific” name, this was no small task. Linnaeus used a system whereby collections of animals with similar traits were collected into a hierarchical system of classification, in family-tree fashion.

Genera (more than one genus) were collected into orders, orders grouped into classes, and classes into kingdoms. That’s the basic framework used today, though modern scientists have added to it. In 1758, he published the 10th edition of his encyclopedia of animal names, Systema Naturae. This was the first time he used a binomial naming system — genus and species — and since he adhered to his own classifications most religiously, when other scientists didn’t, its publication is considered the birth of scientific nomenclature, with him as its patriarch.

Under the Linnaeus system, Lourie’s sea horse belongs in Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata (because it has a spinal chord), Class Actinopterygii (fishes with ray-fins), Subclass Neopterygii (modern ray-finned fishes), Division Teleostei (modern bony fishes), Subdivision Euteleosti (advanced bony fishes), Superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny-rayed fishes), Order Gasterosteiformes (includes sticklebacks, tubesnouts, and sand eels), Suborder Syngnathoidei (fishes with tube-shaped snout), Family Syngnathidae (sea horses and pipefishes), and Genus Hippocampus (fishes with horselike heads and prehensile tail). In polite company, it’s all shortened to Hippocampus denise. At its most basic definition, a species designates a separate species, or a population of individuals that can interbreed and produce offspring that can also reproduce. Think baby horse (Equus caballus) versus baby mule (a hybrid, noted as Equus assinus x Equus caballus).

Usually, they evolve in different geographical areas, and often they’ll fill similar ecological niches, say, on a reef. Do note that this definition isn’t without its exceptions. For example, cichlids can breed with other species of cichlids creating fertile hybrids. Meanwhile, sticklebacks from different geographical locations won’t readily breed with other sticklebacks of the same species if they grew up in different conditions, such as shallow and deep water. The Challenge Presently, there are about 25,000 species and subspecies of fishes, according to the Catalog of the Species of Fishes, maintained by the California Academy of Sciences. Actually, according to the catalog, there are about 53,000 named fishes, but about half of those are duplicates — fishes “rediscovered” by other scientists, often in different parts of the world. Herein lies the challenge. Is that unidentified finned object indeed a new species, or does it match something that’s already on a shelf in a museum somewhere, pale and pickled under 50 years of dust?

“You need an extensive knowledge of the group just to recognize that it might be new and to be able to say you can’t identify it to anything you know,” says Jeff Williams, collection manager in the Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, who has named a few species of his own. “And most of the time you aren’t able to see it’s a new species underwater.” The first step, after collecting samples from, often as not, a location no one in his or her right mind would consider diving, is a thorough scouring through all the biological literature that could conceivably have published a description of your animal since 1758, to see if anything sounds familiar. If it’s in the literature, it’s probably also in a museum somewhere, waiting for closer scrutiny. If that sounds tedious, it is, Williams says. It pays to be lucky. In Lourie’s case, someone already did the legwork; in 1915 a German scientist named Duncker published his monograph Revision der Syngnathidae, eliminating all the known duplicates in the family incurred over the previous 150-odd years.

That kind of living right can save a decade of research, Williams says. When the unidentified fish is determined to be true cryptic ichthyofauna (literally, “hidden fish”), a sample is analyzed to craft a formal description of the species. That single sample becomes the holotype, the perfect older sibling that all subsequent examples are compared against. It is the heir, stored for perpetuity in preservative goo. The spares are called paratypes, and they show some of the natural variation you’ll see in a given species. Please don’t let anything happen to the holotype-in-a-jar, or some poor soul will have to prove the paratype is indeed identical to the departed holotype, thus declaring that sample the neotype. For the record, Lourie’s holotype — a female — and her paratypes are stored in the Museum Zoologicum Boboriense in Cibinong, Indonesia, the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., the Australian Museum in Sydney, and the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. The analysis is nearly as tedious as the literature review.

Among other things, Lourie measured head length, trunk length, eye diameter, coronet height, snout length, dorsal fin length, tail length, width of trunk, and the depth of the trunk at several points along the fish, and compared the proportions of those measurements, then compared all of that with two similar species — H. bargibanti and H. minotaur (bullneck sea horse). She analyzed an X-ray to count the number of trunk rings and tail rings, and she counted the number of rays in the dorsal, pectoral, and anal fins — all on an animal about the size of a thumbnail. Those measurements, taken as a whole, make up the scientific description that shows how this fish is different from any look-alike cousins. With data in hand, Lourie and collaborator John Randall, senior ichthyologist (emeritus) at the Bishop Museum, put fingers to keyboard to write a research paper to present their findings to the world. “A New Pygmy Seahorse, Hippocampus denise (Teleostei: Syngnathidae) from the Indo-Pacific” was published in the journal Zoological Studies last summer.

And so, there are now 33 species of sea horse. With all the Hoopus scientificus researchers must jump through, it’s a little surprising the process happens even 200 times a year. “It’s overwhelming,” says Williams, who might be working on a dozen or more species at a time, typically fishes from the Pacific Rim. “I don’t have time to work on different taxa.” Actually, there aren’t many people who describe fish — by one estimate, there may only be about 500 scientists in the world who specialize in taxonomy. It’s expensive work, and it’s not en vogue anymore, Williams says. It’s a science of the 19th century, while in the 21st century research funding goes to ecologists who describe — and attempt to fix — unhealthy ecosystems, not identify each individual component of that system. According to a recent National Academy of Sciences study, we know of less than 10 percent of the biodiversity found on a reef.

Not that fixing ecosystems isn’t important, but in a way, trying to do anything with only a little knowledge of what’s supposed to be there is like cooking a gourmet dinner without a recipe and only the peanut butter and cream of mushroom soup left over in your pantry. Or like building a house out of cards. “The basic data gathering of what we have in the world isn’t being emphasized,” he says. “We really need to know the stocks of food eaten by the fish, eaten by the fish, eaten by the fish we eat. If they disappear, you’ll wipe out all the species. And you can’t do comparative biology if you don’t know what you’re comparing.” In other words, it’s hard to study fish ecology, diversity, relationships, life history, and population biology — or to improve our understanding of the effects of human activities on marine life — if we don’t know exactly what we’re looking at. Lourie’s H. denise is a perfect example of that. It’s not the first adult that was thought to be a juvenile of another species. That’s a good way to do bad science. And then there are all those sea creatures out there that may be the source of new drugs to fight human diseases.

Given that there are some very real threats to those as-yet unknown fishes, scientists are eager to get identification work done quickly, even if it’s only a few more a year. “My guess is we’ll probably have 35,000 species [of fishes], possibly even more,” Williams says. “But it could all disappear before we know it’s there.” And if you’re a taxonomist, you worry about these things. For More Information “Seahorses: An Identification Guide to the World’s Species and Their Conservation,” written by Sara A. Lourie, Amanda C.J. Vincent and Heather J. Hall, and published by Project Seahorse, London “A New Pygmy Seahorse, Hippocampus denise (Teleostei: Syngnathidae) from the Indo-Pacific,” written by Sara A. Lourie, and John E. Randall and published in the April 2003 issue of the journal Zoological Studies. fUSION Anomaly. Seahorses 3. Mythology. An animal, half fish and half horse, ridden by Neptune and other sea gods. 4. A large white-capped wave.

Sea Horse Sea Horse, any of a number of small fishes of the same family as the pipefish. The name is derived from the resemblance of its head to the head of a horse. The body has an elongated tail and is covered by large, rectangular bony plates. Sea horses are found in various warm and temperate seas near the shore, often in brackish water . The common sea horse (Hippocampus hudsonius) of the Atlantic Coast of North America reaches a length of more than 13 cm (more than 5 in). Scientific classification: Sea horses make up the genus Hippocampus in the family Syngnathidae. Hippocampus denise, is typically just 16 millimetres long - smaller than most fingernails. Some were found to be just 13 mm long.

brit pop track _Blinded By The by The Seahorses off of _Do It Yourself_ (1997) track _The Sea Horse_ MP3 (224k) by Yo La Tengo off of _The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science_ on Egon (2002) Telex SharkFriends Sea Horse Page Learning Lounge ~ Sea Horse ~ NAME: The name is derived from the resemblance of the head to that of a horse. DESCRIPTION: A sea horse has long, tubular jaws much like a snout. The body is compressed, with an elongated tail, and the integument (external covering) is a series of large, rectangular bony plates, with a series of spines and projections along the lines of juncture. These spines, together with the divided, streamerlike fins of some species, give them a strong resemblance to the seaweeds among which they live. SPECIES AND LOCATION: About 30 species of sea horses are found in various warm and temperate seas. Sea horses are of the same family as the pipefish. All keep near the shore, often developing in brackish water. BEHAVIOR: Sea horses, like pipefish, have unusual breeding habits.

Following mating, a female sea horse deposits her eggs in a brood pouch located on the abdomen of the male sea horse, who then takes care of the eggs until they hatch. SWIMMING: Sea horses swim fastest in the horizontal position, but can also propel themselves while remaining vertical. COMMON SEA HORSE: The Hippocampus hudsonius, also known as the common sea horse of the Atlantic coast of North America, is the largest of all the species of sea horses, reaching a length of more than 5 inches. SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION: Sea horses make up the genus Hippocampus in the family Syngnathidae. Animals - 8 | Britannica.com Animals (kingdom Animalia), any of a group of multicellular eukaryotic organisms (i.e., as distinct from bacteria, their deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is contained in a membrane-bound nucleus). Browse Subcategories: (255) Displaying 601 - 700 of 800 results red fox Vulpes vulpes species of fox (family Canidae) found throughout Europe, temperate Asia, northern Africa, and North America.

It has the largest natural distribution of any land mammal except human beings. Introduced to Australia, it has established itself... redstart any of about 11 bird species of the Old World chat-thrush genus Phoenicurus (family Muscicapidae) or any of a dozen New World birds of vaguely similar appearance and behaviour. The Old World redstarts, 14 cm (5.5 inches) long, are named for their tail... reedbuck Redunca any of three medium-sized antelopes (family Bovidae) that inhabit the grasslands and marshes of sub-Saharan Africa. The reedbuck is distinguished by a round glandular spot below each ear and curved horns (on males only) that point forward; these... reindeer Rangifer tarandus species of deer (family Cervidae) found in the Arctic tundra and adjacent boreal forests of Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, and Canada. Reindeer have been domesticated in Europe. There are two varieties, or ecotypes: tundra... Remizidae bird family (order Passeriformes) that contains the penduline tits and, usually, the verdin.

Some authorities classify the roughly 12 species in this group as a subfamily of the titmouse family, Paridae. Remizids are much like long-tailed tits (Aegithalidae)... Rensselaeria genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Lower Devonian marine rocks (387 to 408 million years old). The shell is large and elongated. Its surface markings include fine costae (i.e., lines that radiate from the narrow apex of the... reptile any member of the class Reptilia, the group of air-breathing vertebrates that have internal fertilization, amniotic development, and epidermal scales covering part or all of their body. The major groups of living reptiles—the turtles (order Testudines),... Resserella extinct genus of brachiopods (lamp shells) that occurs as fossils in marine rocks of Middle Ordovician to Lower Silurian age (421 to 478 million years old). Resserella has a dorsal shell whose margin is horizontal, and a distal, or upper, shell with...

rhea either of two species of large, flightless birds in the family Rheidae, order Rheiformes. They are native to South America and are related to the ostrich and emu. The common rhea (Rhea americana) is found in open country from northeastern Brazil southward... rhinoceros Rhinocerotidae any of five or six species of giant, horn -bearing herbivores that include some of the largest living land mammals. Only African and Asian elephants are taller at the shoulder than the two largest rhinoceros species—the white, or square-lipped... Rhynchotrema extinct genus of brachiopods, or lamp shells, found as fossils in Middle and Late Ordovician rocks (the Ordovician Period lasted from 505 to 438 million years ago). The shell is small and distinctive for its strongly developed ribbing. Rhynchotrema is... Rhynchotreta extinct genus of brachiopods (lamp shells) commonly found as fossils in Silurian marine rocks (between 444 million and 416 million years old). Its small, roughly triangular shell is prominently ornamented by distinct ridges that run lengthwise to the...

ribbon worm any member of the invertebrate phylum Nemertea (sometimes called Nemertinea, or Rhynchocoela), which includes mainly free-living forms but also a few parasites of crustaceans, mollusks, and sea squirts. The majority of the approximately 900 known nemertean... river dolphin any of six species of small, usually freshwater aquatic mammals that are related to whales (order Cetacea). These dolphins are found in rivers of south-central Asia, China, and South America and in the coastal waters of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.... robin either of two species of thrushes (family Turdidae) distinguished by an orange or dull reddish breast. The American robin (Turdus migratorius), a large North American thrush, is one of the most familiar songbirds in the eastern United States. Early colonial... rockfowl either of the two species of western African birds, genus Picathartes, constituting the subfamily Picathartinae, of uncertain family relationships in the order Passeriformes. Both species, with virtually no feathering on the head, have drab, grayish...

rockhopper penguin either of two species of crested penguins (genus Eudyptes, order Sphenisciformes) characterized by its red eyes, a relatively thin stripe of upright yellow feathers extending from the bill to the back of the head above each eye (the superciliary stripe),... rodent Rodentia any of more than 2,050 living species of mammals characterized by upper and lower pairs of ever-growing rootless incisor teeth. Rodents are the largest group of mammals, constituting almost half the class Mammalia’s approximately 4,660 species.... roe deer Capreolus small, graceful Eurasian deer of the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla). There are two species of roe deer: the European, or western, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and the larger Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus). Despite their Old World distribution,... rotifer any of the approximately 2,000 species of microscopic, aquatic invertebrates that constitute the phylum Rotifera.

Rotifers are so named because the circular arrangement of moving cilia (tiny hairlike structures) at the front end resembles a rotating... royal penguin Eudyptes schlegeli species of crested penguin (genus Eudyptes, order Sphenisciformes) characterized by a large orange-coloured bill, a pale-coloured face, a black head, and a long crest of yellow-orange feathers that originates on the forehead and runs... ruminant any mammal of the suborder Ruminantia (order Artiodactyla), which includes the pronghorns, giraffes, okapis, deer, chevrotains, cattle, antelopes, sheep, and goats. Most ruminants have four-chambered stomachs and a two-toed foot. The upper incisors are... salamander Caudata any member of a group of about 410 species of amphibians that have tails and that constitute the order Caudata. The order comprises 10 families, among which are newts and salamanders proper (family Salamandridae) as well as hellbenders, mud puppies,...

salmon originally, the large fish now usually called the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), though more recently the name has been applied to similar fishes of the same family (Salmonidae), especially the Pacific salmon, which constitute the genus Oncorhynchus.... sandpiper any of numerous shorebirds belonging to the family Scolopacidae (order Charadriiformes), which also includes the woodcocks and the snipes. The name sandpiper refers particularly to several species of small to middle-sized birds, about 15 to 30 cm (6... sardine any of certain food fishes of the herring family, Clupeidae, especially members of the genera Sardina, Sardinops, and Sardinella; the name sardine can also refer to the common herring (Clupea harengus) and to other small herrings or herringlike fishes... saturniid moth Saturniidae any of about 1,500 species of moths (order Lepidoptera), some of which spin thick, silken cocoons and are sometimes used to produce commercial silk.

Adults have stout, hairy bodies and broad wings that are often vividly coloured and patterned.... saurischian any member of one of the two major lineages of dinosaurs, including birds and all dinosaurs more closely related to birds than to Triceratops. In 1888 paleontologist Harry G. Seeley, a former student of Richard Owen, separated dinosaurs into two groups... sauropterygian any of the aquatic reptiles found as fossils from the Mesozoic Era (251 million to 66 million years ago). Sauropterygians include the nothosaurs, the pistosaurs, and the plesiosaurs, all of which were remarkably well adapted to life in the water. The... scallop any of the marine bivalve mollusks of the family Pectinidae, particularly species of the genus Pecten. The family, which includes about 50 genera and subgenera and more than 400 species, is worldwide in distribution and ranges from the intertidal zone...

schizocoelomate any invertebrate animal that possesses a schizocoel, a coelom (that is, the body cavity lying between the digestive tract and the musculature of the body wall) formed through the splitting of the mesodermal mass, the middle germ layer in embryonic development.... Schizodus extinct genus of small mollusks found as fossils in rocks from the Devonian to the Permian Period (416 million to 251 million years ago). Schizodus is representative of a group of clams, the schizodonts, with a distinctive method of shell articulation.... Schmidt, Karl P. U.S. zoologist whose international reputation derived from the principles of animal ecology he established through his theoretical studies and fieldwork. He was also a leading authority on herpetology, contributing significantly to the scientific literature... Schwann, Theodor German physiologist who founded modern histology by defining the cell as the basic unit of animal structure. Schwann studied at the Jesuits’ College at Cologne before attending the University of Bonn and then the University of Würzburg, where he began...

scorpaeniform Scorpaeniformes any one of a group of bony fishes that are characterized by a plate of bone running across each cheek. The scorpaeniforms are widespread throughout the oceans of the world. They are believed to have originated in warm marine waters but... scorpion Scorpiones or Scorpionida any of approximately 1,500 elongated arachnid species characterized by a segmented curved tail tipped with a venomous stinger at the rear of the body and a pair of grasping pincers at the front. Although scorpions are most common... sea anemone any member of the invertebrate order Actiniaria (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria), soft-bodied, primarily sedentary marine animals resembling flowers. They are found from the tidal zone of all oceans to depths of more than 10,000 metres (about 33,000... sea bass Serranidae any of the numerous fishes of the family Serranidae (order Perciformes), most of which are marine, found in the shallower regions of warm and tropical seas.

The family includes about 475 species, many of them well-known food and sport fishes.... sea horse Hippocampus any of about 36 species of marine fishes allied to pipefishes in the family Syngnathidae (order Gasterosteiformes). Sea horses are found in shallow coastal waters in latitudes from about 52° N to 45° S. Their habitats include coral reefs,... sea lion any of five species of eared seals found primarily in Pacific waters. Sea lions are characterized by a coat of short, coarse hair that lacks a distinct undercoat. Except for the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), males have lion-like manes... sea snake any of more than 60 species of highly venomous marine snake s of the cobra family (Elapidae). There are two independently evolved groups: the true sea snakes (subfamily Hydrophiinae), which are related to Australian terrestrial elapids, and the sea krait... sea spider any of the spiderlike marine animals comprising the class Pycnogonida (also called Pantopoda) of the phylum Arthropoda.

Sea spiders walk about on the ocean bottom on their slender legs or crawl among plants and animals; some may tread water. Most pycnogonids... sea star any marine invertebrate of the class Asteroidea (phylum Echinodermata) having rays, or arms, surrounding an indistinct central disk. Despite their older common name, they are not fishes. The roughly 1,600 living species of sea stars occur in all oceans;... sea turtle any of seven species of marine turtles belonging to the families Dermochelyidae (leatherback sea turtles) and Cheloniidae (green turtles, flatback sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, hawksbills, and ridleys). Both families are highly aquatic, and most... seal any of 32 species of web-footed aquatic mammal s that live chiefly in cold seas and whose body shape, round at the middle and tapered at the ends, is adapted to swift and graceful swimming. There are two types of seals: the earless, or true, seals (family... seedeater broadly, any songbird that lives chiefly on seeds and typically has a more or less strong conical bill for crushing them.

In this sense, the term includes the sparrows, buntings, finches, grosbeaks, canaries, weavers, and waxbills. Seedeater also is... shark any of numerous species of cartilaginous fishes of predatory habit that constitute the order Selachii (class Chondrichthyes). Sharks, together with rays and skates, make up the subclass Elasmobranchii of the Chondrichthyes. Sharks differ from other elasmobranchs,... shearwater any member of more than a dozen species of long-winged oceanic birds belonging to the family Procellariidae (order Procellariiformes), which also includes the fulmars and the petrels. Typical shearwaters are classified in the genus Puffinus, which has... sheep ruminant (cud-chewing) mammal of the genus Ovis. The sheep is usually stockier than its relative the goat; its horns, when present, are more divergent; it has scent glands in its face and hind feet; and the males lack the beards of goats. Sheep usually...

Shelford, Victor Ernest American zoologist and animal ecologist whose pioneering studies of animal communities helped to establish ecology as a distinct discipline. His Animal Communities in Temperate America (1913) was one of the first books to treat ecology as a separate... shellfish any aquatic invertebrate animal having a shell and belonging to the phylum Mollusca, the class Crustacea (phylum Arthropoda), or the phylum Echinodermata. The term is often used for the edible species of the groups, especially those that are fished or... short-horned grasshopper Acrididae any of more than 10,000 species of insects (order Orthoptera) that are characterized by short, heavy antennae, a four-valved ovipositor for laying eggs, and three-segmented tarsi (distal segments of the leg). They are herbivorous and include... short-tailed shrew Blarina any of three species of North American insectivores that resemble voles in body form. All have minute, degenerate eyes and small ears concealed in the fur. Within the moderately long and pointed muzzle are reddish-tipped teeth. Blarina species...

shrew Soricidae any of more than 350 species of insectivores having a mobile snout that is covered with long, sensitive whiskers and overhangs the lower lip. Their large incisor teeth are used like forceps to grab prey; the upper pair is hooked, and the lower... shrike Laniidae any of approximately 30 species of medium-sized predatory birds (order Passeriformes); in particular, any of the more than 25 species of the genus Lanius, constituting the subfamily of true shrikes, Laniinae. With their bills they can kill large... shrike-vireo Vireolanius any of about four species of tropical American songbirds, characterized by a stout, slightly hooked bill (like the true shrikes in the family Laniidae) but with anatomical features that ally them with the vireos (family Vireonidae; order... shrimp any of the approximately 2,000 species of the suborder Natantia (order Decapoda of the class Crustacea). Close relatives include crabs, crayfish, and lobsters.

Shrimp are characterized by a semitransparent body flattened from side to side and a flexible... side-necked turtle Pleurodira any species of turtle belonging to the families Chelidae, Pelomedusidae, and Podocnemididae. The common name is derived from the animal’s defensive posture. Instead of retracting the head and neck into the shell for protection, turtles of... siliceous sponge any sponge in which the main skeletal component is silica as opposed to calcium carbonate or fibrous organic materials only. More than 95 percent of all known sponge species have a siliceous skeleton and belong to the class Demospongiae (phylum Porifera).... silky flycatcher Ptilogonatidae any of four arboreal bird species found in dry, brushy regions from Nevada south to Panama that have silky feathers, prominent crests, and broad bills. They are about 19 cm (7.5 inches) long. Their basic diet consists of mistletoe berries,... sirenian Sirenia any of four large aquatic mammalian species now living primarily in tropical waters where food plants grow.

The three species of manatee (genus Trichechus) occupy warm latitudes of the coastal Atlantic and associated rivers, and the dugong (Dugong... skate in zoology, any of numerous flat-bodied, cartilaginous fishes constituting the suborder Rajoidea of the order Batoidei (skates, rays, and others). Skates are found in most parts of the world, from tropical to near-Arctic waters and from the shallows... skink Scincidae any of about 1,275 species of lizards, mostly secretive ground dwellers or burrowers, that are represented throughout most of the world but are especially diverse in Southeast Asia and its associated islands, the deserts of Australia, and the... skunk Mephitidae black-and-white mammal, found primarily in the Western Hemisphere, that uses extremely well-developed scent glands to release a noxious odour in defense. The term skunk, however, refers to more than just the well-known striped skunk (Mephitis... sloth Phyllophaga tree-dwelling mammal noted for its slowness of movement.

All five living species are limited to the lowland tropical forests of South and Central America, where they can be found high in the forest canopy sunning, resting, or feeding on leaves.... snail a gastropod, especially one having an enclosing shell, into which it may retract completely for protection. A gastropod lacking a shell is commonly called a slug or sea slug. snake Serpentes any of about 2,900 species of reptile s distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. Classified with lizard s in the order Squamata, snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution, has undergone... Snares penguin Eudyptes robustus species of crested penguin (genus Eudyptes, order Sphenisciformes) characterized by plumes of yellow feathers that run above each eye (the superciliary stripe) and extend from the base of the bird’s cone-shaped bill to the back of the... snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus any of four species of large and unusual leaf monkeys (see langur) found in highland forests of central China and northern Vietnam.

They have a broad, short face with wide-set slanting eyes and a short, flat nose with forward-facing nostrils.... social insect any of numerous species of insects that live in colonies and manifest three characteristics: group integration, division of labour, and overlap of generations. Social insects are best exemplified by all termites (Isoptera) and ants (Formicidae) and by... solenodon Solenodontidae either species of large shrew like mammal found only on the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. Solenodons have a chunky body with short, stocky legs. Various skin glands give it a goatlike odour. The elongate head has very small eyes and... solenogaster small, wormlike, marine mollusk of the class Aplacophora (subclass Neomeniomorpha). Unlike most other mollusks, solenogasters have no shell. The body is covered instead by a cuticle containing many calcareous spicules. Most solenogasters are 2.5 cm (1... solitaire either of two species of extinct flightless birds related to the dodo.

songbird any member of the suborder Passeri (or Oscines), of the order Passeriformes, including about 4,000 species—nearly half the world’s birds—in 35 to 55 families. Most cage birds belong to this group. Songbirds are alike in having the vocal organ highly... sparrow any of a number of small, chiefly seed-eating birds having conical bills. The name sparrow is most firmly attached to birds of the Old World family Passeridae (order Passeriformes), particularly to the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) that is so common... sperm whale Physeter catodon the largest of the toothed whales, easily recognized by its enormous square head and narrow lower jaw. The sperm whale is dark blue-gray or brownish, with white patches on the belly. It is thickset and has small paddlelike flippers and... spider Araneida or Araneae any of more than 43,200 species of arachnid s that differ from insect s in having eight legs rather than six and in having the body divided into two parts rather than three. The use of silk is highly developed among spiders. Spider...

spiny shark any of a class (Acanthodii) of small extinct fishes, the earliest known jawed vertebrates, possessing features found in both sharks and bony fishes. Acanthodians appeared first in the Silurian Period and lasted into the Early Permian (from about 438... spiny-headed worm any animal of the invertebrate phylum Acanthocephala. A proboscis, or snout, which bears hooks, gives the group its name. There are about 1,150 recorded species, all of which parasitize vertebrates (usually fish) as adults and arthropods (usually insects... spiracle in arthropods, the small external opening of a trachea (respiratory tube) or a book lung (breathing organ with thin folds of membrane resembling book leaves). Spiracles are usually found on certain thoracic and abdominal segments. In elasmobranch and... sponge any of the primitive multicellular aquatic animals that constitute the phylum Porifera.

They number approximately 5,000 described species and inhabit all seas, where they occur attached to surfaces from the intertidal zone to depths of 8,500 metres (29,000... spoonworm any member of the invertebrate phylum Echiura, also known as Echiuroidea, or Echiurida. Nearly all spoonworms are exclusively marine. They are sausage-shaped organisms with a flattened extension of the “head” that is curved along its lateral edges and... springbok Antidorcas marsupialis graceful, strikingly marked antelope of the gazelle tribe, Antilopini (family Bovidae, order Artiodactyla). The springbok is native to the open, treeless plains of southern Africa. It once roamed in enormous herds but is now much... springtail Collembola any of approximately 6,000 small, primitive, wingless insects that range in length from 1 to 10 mm (0.04 to 0.4 inch). Most species are characterized by a forked appendage (furcula) attached at the end of the abdomen and held in place under...

squab variety of domestic pigeon raised for its meat. squirrel Sciuridae generally, any of the 50 genera and 268 species of rodents whose common name is derived from the Greek skiouros, meaning “shade tail,” which describes one of the most conspicuous and recognizable features of these small mammals. These distinctive... stenolaemate any member of the class Stenolaemata, a group of colonial marine animals within the invertebrate phylum Bryozoa (moss animals). About 900 species of stenolaemates have been described. Only one of the four orders that make up the class, the Cyclostomata,... stonefly Plecoptera any of about 2,000 species of insects, the adults of which have long antennae, weak, chewing mouthparts, and two pairs of membranous wings. The stonefly ranges in size from 6 to more than 60 mm (0.25 to 2.5 inches). The hindwings are generally...

stork Ciconiidae any of about 20 species of long-necked large birds constituting the family Ciconiidae (order Ciconiiformes), related to the herons, flamingos, and ibises. Storks range from about 60 cm to more than 150 cm (2 to 5 feet) in height. All or part... Stringocephalus extinct genus of large brachiopods, or lamp shells, found as fossils in Devonian marine rocks (416 million to 359 million years old). Stringocephalus is widely distributed and occurs in western North America, Asia, and northern Europe. Several forms... Stropheodonta genus of small, extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Devonian marine rocks (those about 359 million to 416 million years old). Stropheodonta has a distinctive internal structure and a shell form with fine linear and arcuate (bowlike)... Strophomena genus of extinct brachiopods (lamp shells) found as fossils in Middle and Upper Ordovician marine rocks (those ranging in age from 438 million to 478 million years old).

The shell consists of two parts, or valves, dissimilar in shape—one strongly convex,... sturgeon any of more than 25 species of fishes of the family Acipenseridae (subclass Chondrostei), native to temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species live in the sea and ascend rivers (possibly once in several years) to spawn in spring or summer;... Sturnidae songbird family, order Passeriformes, consisting of the starlings and mynas, nearly 120 species of jaunty aggressive birds distributed worldwide. The oxpeckers were formerly considered members of the Sturnidae but are now in their own family, the Buphagidae.... sunspider Solifugae any of more than 1,000 species of the arthropod class Arachnida whose common name refers to their habitation of hot dry regions as well as to their typically golden colour. They are also called wind scorpions because of their swiftness, camel... Surinam toad (Pipa pipa), aquatic South American toad (family Pipidae) in which the eggs are incubated on the back of the female.

The Surinam toad is about 10 to 17 cm (4 to 7 inches) long. It has a flat, squarish body, small eyes, and a flat head with loose flaps... swallow any of the approximately 90 species of the bird family Hirundinidae (order Passeriformes). A few, including the bank swallow, are called martins (see martin; see also woodswallow; for sea swallow, see tern). Swallows are small, with pointed narrow wings,... swan largest waterfowl species of the subfamily Anserinae, family Anatidae (order Anseriformes). Most swans are classified in the genus Cygnus. Swans are gracefully long-necked, heavy-bodied, big-footed birds that glide majestically when swimming and fly... swift any of about 75 species of agile, fast-flying birds of the family Apodidae (sometimes Micropodidae), in the order Apodiformes, which also includes the hummingbirds. The family is divided into the subfamilies Apodinae, or soft-tailed swifts, and Chaeturinae,...

Sylviidae songbird family, order Passeriformes, consisting of numerous species of small dull-coloured active birds found in a variety of habitats. The group includes some species of Old World warblers and parrotbills. Members range in size from 9 to 26 cm (3.5... Hippocampus zosterae Dwarf seahorse They all range in size from 6 - 12 inches although most fall in the 6 inch category. The color range of sea horses is enormous! They can be white, yellow, red, brown, black, gray, spotted or banded. Sea horses are pieced together with many different parts and abilities of other animals. They have the head of a horse with the snout of an aardvark, spines like a puffer fish, a pouch of a kangaroo, eyes like a lizards, the tail of a monkey, an armor plated body like Stegosaurus, the ability to change colors like a chameleon and to wrap their tails around things. Each one of the special features plays an important role in the life of a sea horse.

The seahorse has the eyes of a lizard which mean one eye looks left while the other eye looks right. Both eyes do not look ahead like our eyes do. This unique ability allows the seahorse to look for enemies with one eye while searching for food with the other eye. It is also believed that with this binocular vision seahorses have, they can see their microscopic prey. The tube-shaped snout lent to the sea horse by the aardvark is its mouth. It is made of an upper and lower jaw, both of which are toothless! The seahorse opens and closes its jaw in a rapid snapping movement while lowering the floor of its mouth to increase volume. The snout is designed to suck up microscopic animals that live in the water. These animals include small crustaceans, brine shrimp, plankton, worms and other invertebrates. Seahorses usually ambush these microscopic animals as they swim past. The bony plate of armor that Stegosaurus loaned the seahorse covers its entire body. This suit of armor consists of many bony plates that interlock throughout the seahorses body that are arranged into "rings".

Each species has a distinct number of rings but that number varies between different members of the Hippocampus family. The joints where the armor interlocks are marked by the spines of the puffer fish. These two features provide the seahorse with protection from predators but also limits their flexibility. The prehensile monkeys tail also provides a very important function in the every day life of a sea horse. Anybody who has every been in the ocean knows that there is a strong undercurrent or under toe that can be very overwhelming. So they are not swept away by this current, sea horses wrap their tales around coral, sea grass or any other convienent object on the ocean floor. Because sea horses wear such heavy armor, they are very poor swimmers. They spend most of the day resting by anchoring themselves with their tail. They have no caudal or tail fin like all other fishes do. When they do swim, they majestically glide through the water without any visible effort. This is because they have a transparent fin on their back, called a dorsal fin, that beats 20-30 times per second, so fast we can't see it! The dorsal fin moves the seahorse forward.

The pectoral fin controls which way the seahorse is going to turn. When they do swim, it is in an up and down fashion. They regulate whether then swim up or down by controlling the volume of gas in their bodies (like a shark!). The sea horse relies on its ability to camouflage itself for protection against predators like large fish, birds, crabs and sea turtles. With its camouflaging ability, it can change colors in the blink of an eye. Did you know that the male sea horse carries the young and that when a male and female sea horse mate, it's for life?! Seahorses mate during the full moon. They normally go through a series of courtship rituals that lasts several days before they mate. The courtship ritual involves such things as color changes and synchronised swimming. The female makes between 200 - 600 eggs which are a pinkish color. The size of the eggs varies from .5 to 1.5 millimeters, depending on the species. The female then deposits them in the males brood pouch where he fertilizes them and lets them grow. The developing embryos are oxygenated and maintained for 3 - 6 weeks.

When the male gives birth, he may actually experience birth pain. When they hatch, the baby sea ponies are about 1 centimeter long. When the baby seahorses are born, they must fend for themselves because the male will not care for them. They will live for about 4 years. The trade of seahorses is legal. But if we are not careful, then we could push this amazing creature into extinction. The Chinese, Indonesians and Central Filipinos use sea horses in their medicines as cures for illnesses, as aphrodisiacs and as food. Medicinal purposes for seahorses include using them as "cures" for asthma, arteriosclerosis, incontinence and impotence, thyroid disorders, skin ailments, broken bones and heart disease. Some areas even use seahorses as an aid in childbirth. The price of dried seahorses can fetch up to US $550 a pound! The use of sea horses in aquariums, especially in North America, is also steadily growing but many populations are now coming from seahorse farms. Their inshore habitats are also being destroyed which in turn destroys them. Water pollution is also aiding in the destruction of these wonderous creatures.

LINKS TO SEAHORSE SITES:

Question: Which small marine creatures make up the genus hippocampus?
Answer: Sea Horses