A recent study has revealed that seahorses can give birth to as many as 2000 offspring at one go. Giving birth is no big deal for seahorses and more surprisingly, male seahorses take the onus to give birth rather than the females.
According to Cnet, seahorses have the extraordinary ability to give birth to their babies one after another while giving birth. The female seahorse inserts her eggs in the male's brood pouch, which has the capacity to hold as many as 2000 eggs at a time. Giving birth to the offspring is another peculiar phenomenon that is seen in the seahorse. Alike the bullet coming out of a gun, the male seahorse spits out the babies one after another at tremendous speed to give birth to them.
Reportedly, another sea creature dubbed the ocean sunfish or "mola" is considered to be the champion of childbirth. It is termed by scientists as the heavyweight egg producer of nature, having a capability to release 300 million eggs over a spawning season. However, out of a million eggs that are produced, only two remain alive, as per the scientists. The scenario is almost the same in the case of the seahorses, out of whose 1000 eggs, only 5 can sustain in the full form of life.
According to Livemint, scientists have been researching for a long time to find out the genome code of the seahorse. Other than the very eccentric fact of the male seahorse giving birth to the child, the seahorses show a host of amazing features. It includes their horse-like heads, tubes-like snouts and no presence of teeth. Their peculiar ability to swim upright, not horizontally, and to grasp sea grass by their tails to avoid being swept away by currents are also not seen in any other sea creature.
Besides, the seahorses can change their body colors according to the environment to camouflage themselves. Their bodies are covered with bony plates. The eyes of the seahorses also function in a very peculiar way, letting them look forward and backward simultaneously. Researchers say that the identification of different genes in the seahorses make them stand out from the other marine creatures and fishes.
Seahorses are considered to be one of the most exuberant creations of nature. However, these iconic creatures are on the way of becoming extinct very fast due to the lack of habitat. Scientists are looking to restore their living places and give stability to the seahorse population.
