TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 A Small Sea Legend 4 CHAPTER 2 Sea Horses Are Fish 10 CHAPTER 3 Ambushing Dinner 16 CHAPTER 4 A Courtship Dance 20 CHAPTER 5 Threats from Weather 24 THINK ABOUT IT 30 LEARN MORE 31 GLOSSARY 32 INDEX 32
21st century skills library 4 A Small Sea Legend chapter 1 They’ve been a part of stories and legends for hundreds of years Herds of them can be found in meadows of sea grass Their heads look a lot like those of horses But you can’t ride these animals With monkey-like tails lizard-like eyes and a kangaroo-type pouch sea horses are some of the ocean’s most unusual creatures Despite their strange appearance sea horses are actually fish They have gills to breathe underwater They have fins to push themselves up and down and forward and backward
exploring our oceans 5 Sea horses can blend into their surroundings There are somewhere between 34 and 50 species of sea horses No one knows the exact number because sea horses are difficult to identify They can change their colors and patterns to match their surroundings so members of the same species don’t always look alike Often one species of sea horse will be given several different names To accurately identify a sea horse scientists must count the number of bony rays in their fins and the bony rings that encircle their body and tail Scientists also compare the length of the sea horses snouts and head spines
