Bill Cresko at the University of Oregon studies sea dragon genetics to answer one fundamental question: He and his colleagues want to know "how the hell" these fish came to look the way they do
Among the ocean’s menagerie of bizarre creatures, sea dragons stand out. Relatives of sea horses and pipefish, sea dragons have long narrow snouts that they use like a straw to suck up meals of microscopic crustaceans. Instead of scales, the fish are covered in bony armor, and their backbones are kinked. Like their sea horse cousins, male sea dragons gestate a female’s fertilized eggs in a pouch.
They come in two groups of species, leafy and weedy. “Leafies” have elaborate branching appendages that make them virtually indistinguishable from the floating seaweed in their Southern Australian habitats. Weedy sea dragons are more streamlined but are also more colorful, with purple stripes and yellow polka dots.
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