*alternative titles include “Looking a gift seahorse (genome) in the mouth”, “My kingdom for a seahorse genome”, “Hold your seahorses“, and “The galloping evolution of seahorses“.

Let’s face it, seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons are messed up. That’s not a subjective opinion but an evolutionary fact.  It’s like all the approximately 300 species in Syngnathidae (the family of fish that contains all these critters) held a meeting and decided unanimously “Nah, screw it, we’ll do things however we damn well please.”  The Syngnathids are revolutionaries of the fish world.  ¡Viva la Evolución Revolución!

Seriously, almost everything in these species is different.  There is the elongated snouts and small mouths and jaws.  The pelvic and caudal fins are often gone.  The scales are replaced with an armor of bony plates.  Let’s not forget about the whole “male pregnancy” thing where the males nourish the developing embryos in a pouch.  Seahorses take it all to a whole other level with the prehensile tail and the vertical body axis.

So ultimately, one is left wondering what’s up with those genes?  Well, thanks to an intrepid group of geneticist, the complete genome of the tiger tail seahorse, Hippocampus comes, is complete.  With the full genome comes great power, the ability to compare this genome to the other sequenced fish.

Part of the story regarding the bizarreness of seahorses is gene loss.   Secretory calcium-binding phosphoprotein (SCPP) genes code for matrix proteins that are important in the formation of bone and teeth.  These genes are completely missing in Hippocampus comes and may explain why seahorses do not have teeth.  Did I forget to mention that?  Yeah seahorses and seadragons are toothless. The tbx4 gene, conserved in jawed vertebrates, acts as a regulator of hindlimb formation.  The gene is completely absent in the seahorse genome and explains the absence of those pesky pelvic fins.

What about that whole “male pregnancy” thing?   The H. comes genome contains six pastn genes, part of a family of genes that regulate the hatching of embryos.  The researchers conducted extra work, like the genome was not enough, suggesting a role for these pastn genes in brood pouch development and/or hatching of embryos within the brood pouch prior to birth.

Seahorses have also apparently lost many conserved noncoding genes (CNEs) that function as enhancers, repressors, and insulators of other genes.  1,612 CNEs have been lost in seahorses.  Compare this to the 281 in the Nile perch.  It is unclear how the loss of the CNEs may be related to some of the oddities of the seahorse, but loss of CNEs is tied to moderate short stature and shortened limbs in humans.

How I imagine the scientists of the study acted once they finished the genome

The awesomeness of this kind of work cannot even be articulated.  The researchers have done an amazing job of unpacking the genome of a seahorse and showing how genome evolution directly leads to all the uniqueness of seahorses.  Admittedly, I am little disappointed in not seeing a discussion of the prehensile tails genes and armored plating discussed. I guess I’ll need to wait a bit to build my army of aquatic minions to take over the world.

The post In the evolution of fishes, this is a one seahorse race* first appeared on Deep Sea News.

For a cool $125,000, you could be the belle of your next scientific conference ball, strutting in with this gorgeous “Jellyfish clip” attached to your LBD or BCD. Who wouldn’t want to be dripping in 2.97 carats of diamonds?

If shapeless invertebrates aren’t your thing, consider splurging on this “Two-fish clip” ($105,000), featuring 19th-century-inspired paillonné enamel fins:

Or perhaps the “Seahorse Clip”, where diamonds, amethyst, periodot and pink sapphire are nestled within an 18k gold and platinum lattice ($54,000):

And finally, at only $4,500 these diamond and green enamel “Shell ear clips” are are absolute bargain – why, they’re so glamorous they nearly pay for themselves!

The post Undersea jewelry (and sparkling diamonds) from Tiffany & Co. first appeared on Deep Sea News.

What are your favorite Father’s Day marine animals?

The post Happy Father’s Day! first appeared on Deep Sea News.

See the paper here:
Paczolt KA, Jones AG (2010) Post-copulatory sexual selection and sexual conflict in the evolution of male pregnancy. Nature 464:401-404. doi:10.1038/nature08861

The post The Dark Side of Male Pregnancy first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The post We Will Miss You Peter! first appeared on Deep Sea News.

It’s going to be much easier to convince people Sea Fans are Super Cool now that National Geographic photographers trained their lens on new species of pygmy sea horses from Indonesia and the Red Sea. Headlines are saying the pygmy wonder horses are endemic (hello) to certain shallow reef gorgonians. Gorgonians (the other corals) are the only place a delicate little pygmy seahorse wants to live.

At under half an inch tall (13 millimeters), Satomi’s pygmy seahorse—named after dive guide Satomi Onishi—is a strong contender for the world’s smallest seahorse

Check the magnificent photo spread and watch a kid friendly video of two red pygmys doing a “morning dance” on a pretty red tropical octocoral. Look at those pinnate tentacles in the photo above. Perfect focus. You can even see the diagnistic sclerites in some of the other pictures.

In the video shown at National Geographic kids site, the texture of the seahorse skin appears so similar to the knobby gorgonian in the background that you would think they co-evolved. Too bad these seahorses can’t stand the pressure of the abyss. Mesophotic brittlestars can greatly resemble their gorgonian substrate, but the ones I’ve seen in the deep-sea are quite conspicuous. Just goes to show what a little visual stimulus can do for your body plan.

Man oh man, I gotta get a warm water gig. No wonder my colleagues spend all their time over there in Indonesia scuba diving, while my GoMx colleagues and I sit around waiting for somebody to fix the robot. Sea horses, brittlestars, sea fans, and co-evolution. Hm. There has got to be a Disney grant movie in their somewhere….

The post Seahorses: nice backdrops for octocorals first appeared on Deep Sea News.