Advancing marine conservation
Adaptive arguments about mating patterns should focus on and evaluate the costs and benefits relating to both female and male mating patterns. To date, most work on mating systems (using prevalent terminology) has concentrated on males, with mating systems categorized as to whether males mate with females once or multiply, sequentially or simulataneously (EMlen and …
Vincent, A.C. (1992). Prospects for sex role reversal in teleost fishes. Netherlands Journal of Zoology 42(2-3):392-399.… Read more
The male pregnancy of pipefishes and seahorses has led to the inference that females compete most intensely for access to mates, because males limit female reproduction. However, recent work has shown that in different species either sex may be the predominant competitor for mates. In this family, there is an apparent association between the mating …
The male pregnancy of pipefishes and seahorses has led to the inference that females compete most intensely for access to mates, because males limit female reproduction. However, recent work has shown that in different species either sex may be the predominant competitor for mates. In this family, there is an apparent association between the mating …
PRONOUNCED sex differences in mating competition are a prominent feature of many animal breeding systems. These differences are widely attributed to sex differences in parental investment1,2which bias the ratio of sexually receptive females to males3 (the operational sex ratio), generating more intense competition between members of one sex, usually males3–5. Unfortunately, relative parental investment1 is usually impossible …
Seahorses provide an ideal opportunity to test our understanding of the evolution of sex differences because of their unique specialization for parental care. Male seahorses undergo a lengthy “pregnancy” during which developing embryos are aerated, osmoregulated and nourished in an abdominal pouch, while females provide no care. In most animals, females limit male reproductive rate …
Seahorses have long been held to have magical properties. In ancient Greece, fishermen who found seahorses washed ashore believed these were the young of the giant stallions that pulled Neptune’s chariots across the waves. The Roman natural historian Pliny stated that ashes of seahorse mixed with tallow and oil of marjoram, and applied to the …
This report details the development of a microsporidan infection in a colony of seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) caused by Glugea heraldi. Of 76 animals imported from Florida Bay (USA), two survived. A myxosporidan (Sphaeromyxa sp.) and an unidentified nematode infection were also diagnosed in the same colony, but these infections were not considered important, causative factors in the …