What genus contains the seahorses?

What genus contains the seahorses? The answer is Hippocampus.

Hippocampus is the genus containing all seahorses, a group of small marine fishes in the family Syngnathidae. The name combines the Greek words for “horse” and “sea monster” or “sea animal,” fitting the animals’ horse-like heads and unusual upright posture.

Seahorses are recognizable by their segmented bony armour, independently moving eyes, dorsal fin for propulsion, and curled prehensile tails. They commonly anchor themselves to seagrass, corals, mangrove roots, or other structures rather than swimming continuously in open water. The genus occurs mainly in shallow tropical and temperate seas worldwide.

Their closest familiar relatives include pipefishes and seadragons, but those are not seahorses and do not belong to Hippocampus. Another frequently misunderstood feature is reproduction: the female transfers eggs into a male’s brood pouch, where he fertilizes and incubates them before giving birth to developed young. Taxonomists recognize dozens of Hippocampus species, with the total changing as new studies revise species boundaries.