BCOA Ep 5: Male seahorses give birth not the females.
There are ˹countless˺ signs on earth for those with sure faith. (Q51:20)
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem🤍.
Normally, female animals give birth to young — not males. However, the rule is almost always proven wrong by its exception, and seahorses are the lucky winners of this particular exception.
Seahorses, seadragons and pipefishes are small marine fishes in the family Syngnathidae that have the unusual habit of leaving the gestation of their young to the males. They do this in a uterus-like pouch — complete with a placenta found in their tails.
You might be wondering why a male seahorse is male if he has a uterus and placenta. He might be an anomaly, but just like other male animals on planet Earth, male seahorses produce sperm instead of eggs. The female seahorse impregnates the male by inserting her eggs into a pouch on the front of his tail, into which he releases sperm to fertilize the eggs and incubate the babies for 24 days. Their pouch provides oxygen and nutrients, as well as regulates temperature, blood flow, and salinity for the developing eggs.
Contractions
When the time comes to give birth, the male begins to experience a form of contractions that essentially push the hatched babies out of his brood pouch and into the water. Contractions could last for 12 hours for some species. During the birth process, the male seems to be making a forward-then-backward motion over and over again. Within only a few hours of releasing his offspring, the male’s brood pouch shrinks back to normal size and he can receive more eggs from his mate who is usually busy producing another batch of eggs. Watch a male seahorse give birth.
A seahorse father can give birth to as many as 1000 babies at a time.
Other amazing facts about sea horses:
Seahorses are among the most unique and interesting animals that can be found beneath the surface of the ocean.
They are tiny in size
seahorses are known for their tiny size. But how small are we talking? Well, that depends.
The smallest species of sea horse is the Hippocampus satomiae, which as an adult has an average length of only 13.8 mm (smaller than an average human fingernail).
They have at least 30 meals a day yet they have no stomach or teeth
They eat almost constantly. Since they have neither teeth nor stomachs, food passes through their small bodies very quickly, so they have to eat at least 30 meals per day. Their digestive systems work so quickly that food moves too rapidly through their bodies to absorb much nutrition.
Their eyes work independently of one another
seahorse can look backwards and forwards at the same time. This is possible because their eyes work independently of each other, which is useful when looking out for predators while consuming one of their many meals.
Amazing camouflage ability
To help them blend into the background, seahorses can change their colour to match their surroundings. They also grow small protrusions, known as cirri, that can mimic moss, algae and other plants.
Seahorses are so good at changing colour and shape that even scientists have a tough time identifying them. It doesn’t help that there are at least 54 different species of seahorse to choose from.
They mate for life
Seahorses are also among only a few other fish species that mate for life. They renew this bonding every day with a courtship display that can last for hours.
They are fishes despite their appearance but terrible swimmers.
This is largely due to their bulky bodies and their unusual fin arrangement. Unlike most fish, seahorses rely on just one small dorsal fin on their back for propulsion and tiny pectoral fins at the side of their heads for steering.
Like I said in my post earlier, Allāh created every creature in such a unique way, AL KHALIQ 🥹.
Ghafir - 40:81
وَيُرِيكُمۡ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ فَأَىَّ ءَايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ تُنكِرُونَ
And He shows you His signs. So which of the signs of Allah do you deny?