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Seahorses
Hippocampus
Seahorse is the name given to 54 species of small marine fishes in the genus Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos (ἵππος, híppos) meaning "horse" and kampos (κάμπος, kámpos) meaning "sea monster". The word "seahorse" can also be written as two separate words (sea horse), or hyphenated (sea-horse). Having a head and neck suggestive of a horse, seahorses also feature segmented bony armour, an upright posture and a curled prehensile tail.
51 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 51 known species
Bigbelly Seahorse
speciesHippocampus abdominalis
Short-snouted Seahorse
speciesHippocampus hippocampus
Common Seahorse
speciesHippocampus kuda
White's Seahorse
speciesHippocampus whitei
Spiny Seahorse
speciesHippocampus histrix
Longsnout Seahorse
speciesHippocampus reidi
Northern Seahorse
speciesHippocampus erectus
Long-snouted Seahorse
speciesHippocampus guttulatus
Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus bargibanti
West Australian Seahorse
speciesHippocampus subelongatus
Shorthead Seahorse
speciesHippocampus breviceps
Giant Seahorse
speciesHippocampus ingens
Tiger Tail Seahorse
speciesHippocampus comes
Dwarf Seahorse
speciesHippocampus zosterae
Denise's Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus denise
Queensland Seahorse
speciesHippocampus spinosissimus
Weedy Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus pontohi
West African Seahorse
speciesHippocampus algiricus
Great Seahorse
speciesHippocampus kelloggi
Three-spot Seahorse
speciesHippocampus trimaculatus
Giraffe Seahorse
speciesHippocampus camelopardalis
Knysna Seahorse
speciesHippocampus capensis
Jayakar's Seahorse
speciesHippocampus jayakari
Japanese Seahorse
speciesHippocampus mohnikei
Patagonian Seahorse
speciesHippocampus patagonicus
Barbour's Seahorse
speciesHippocampus barbouri
Réunion Seahorse
speciesHippocampus borboniensis
Sea Pony
speciesHippocampus fuscus
Coleman's Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus colemani
Korean Seahorse
speciesHippocampus haema
Shiho's Seahorse
speciesHippocampus sindonis
Crowned Seahorse
speciesHippocampus coronatus
Lowcrown Seahorse
speciesHippocampus dahli
Western Spiny Seahorse
speciesHippocampus angustus
Japanese Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus japapigu
Tyro Seahorse
speciesHippocampus tyro
Coral Seahorse
speciesHippocampus taeniopterus
Satomi's Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus satomiae
Pelagic Seahorse
speciesHippocampus fisheri
Walea Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus waleananus
Flatnose Seahorse
speciesHippocampus planifrons
Sodwana Pygmy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus nalu
Zebra Seahorse
speciesHippocampus zebra
Dwarf Thorny Seahorse
speciesHippocampus pusillus
Zulu Seahorse
speciesHippocampus natalensis
Beibu Bay Seahorse
speciesHippocampus casscsio
Pixy Seahorse
speciesHippocampus lichtensteinii
New Caledonian Seahorse
speciesHippocampus curvicuspis
Collared Seahorse
speciesHippocampus jugumus
Softcoral Seahorse
speciesHippocampus debelius
Suez Seahorse
speciesHippocampus suezensis
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
De medicinali materia libri sex
Dioscorides · 1552 · p.835
Garden of Health
Jacob Meydenbach · 1491 · p.690
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.692
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.693
History of Animals, Book II: On Oviparous Quadrupeds
Conrad Gessner · 1586 · p.550
History of Animals, Book II: On Oviparous Quadrupeds
Conrad Gessner · 1586 · p.635
Books on Marine Fishes
Guillaume Rondelet · 1554 · p.755
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1560 · p.295
De Animalibus Insectis Libri Septem
Ulisse Aldrovandi · 1602 · p.756
Theater of Insects
Conrad Gessner; Thomas Moffet; Edward Wotton · 1634 · p.349
The Subterranean World Volume Two
Athanasius Kircher · 1678 · p.391
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Hippocampus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 54541.