New museum find shows nature can’t stop inventing seahorses
SYDNEY: (Aug 3) At first glance it looks exactly like a seahorse. It has the same horse-shaped head tilted down from the body, the same curled and grasping tail, and in the males a fully enclosed pouch for brooding the young.
But this little fish, no longer than your thumb, is not a seahorse, as we report in our new study published in the Journal of Lost Species. This is Australyichthys aegis, a newly described fish from the deep reefs off southern Australia. We have given it the common name helmethead sea muppet, after the domed, helmet-like crest on its head.
Its scientific name follows the same idea: in Greek mythology the aegis was a protective shield. Together with its two relatives, the bullneck sea muppet (A. minotaur) and the paradoxical sea muppet (A. paradoxus), it makes up a small group we nickname the sea muppets.
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