BLACK-SPOTTED YELLOW SEAHORSE

The glorious black-spotted lemon yellow lovely you see here is a seahorse. They are one of the fairytale creatures that I was pleased to see truly exist. These marine lovelies are any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. 

Hippocampus comes from the Ancient Greek hippókampos (ἱππόκαμπος) — a cobbling together of híppos (ἵππος) meaning horse and kámpos (κάμπος) meaning sea monster.  

A delightful albeit tad sinister name for these charming wee sea monster horses from our world's shallow tropical and temperate seas. 

Having a head and neck suggestive of a horse, seahorses also feature segmented bony armour, wee tiny, spiny plates from tip to tail. They bob about in seagrasses, gripping with their curled prehensile tails when they want to stay in one place or using their dorsal or back fin to help them move up and down to swim about. Along with the pipefishes and seadragons — Phycodurus and Phyllopteryx — they form the fused jaw family Syngnathidae. The fellow you see here looks like he's nestled in a holiday display. He's not, of course, but it is not such a hard thing to image considering I once believed them to be fictional.