Is It a Bird, Is It a Plane? No, It's a Weedy Seadragon!

Thursday 18 March 2010

Old maps, when unknown or dangerous territories were shown, would have the legend There Be Dragons upon them. Whether or not they existed in real life is one thing but this little guy isn't going to sink any ships in a hurry. He is a Weedy Seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus). They live in cooler waters around the coast of southern Australia and up to depths of one hundred and fifty feet. Some of them can measure up to forty five centimeters in length and live a surprisingly long time - ten years. The species is, perhaps unsurprisingly, related to the sea horse.

The snout you can see is what they use to suck up their food - mostly small shrimp. We would probably have preferred them to be called leafy rather than weedy (too many beach and sand kicking connotations) but this species is, weedy or not, gorgeous.

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