Remarkable mimicry in seahorses and pipefish

May 22, 2014 • 2:24 pm

Here are some of the most bizarre creatures that live in the sea, and some of the world’s most spectacular example of mimicy. This is a video by “Bubble Vision,” described as “Part 7 of my documentary, ‘Mucky Secrets’, about the fascinating marine creatures of the Lembeh Strait in Indonesia.” Note the bits about reverse sexual selection, in which females compete for males who will gestate their eggs.

14 thoughts on “Remarkable mimicry in seahorses and pipefish”

  1. Great video. Here’s an interesting video and article about a threatened seahorse, rarely seen off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. (Hippocampus erectus)

    digitaljournal.com/news/environment/rare-threatened-seahorse-spotted-by-divers-off-halifax-n-s/article/384416

  2. Jerry:

    A funny image floating around the net today making fun of anti-science cultural anthropologists:

    Fwd:

    Updated Image people are Tweeting:

    It reads:

    “The Cultural Marxist War against Darwinism

    Creationists: evolution is a social construct, not biologically real.

    Liberal Creationists: race is a social construct, not biologically real.

    Charles Darwin: I’m not a creationist; I’ll use the word ‘race’ in title of my Origin of Species”

    Image at: http://oi61.tinypic.com/9kyn2w.jpg

    This pretty well sums up how silly the “social construct” position is – whether by religious creationists or liberal creationists.

    1. There is a discussion going on in Pharyngula about whether human races are real. I like PZ, but he is so PC he pretty much ties himself into a knot trying to explain why there are no real human races.

  3. Amazing video. I had no idea of the variety and mimicry of seahorses and pipefish. The videography is out of this world, and the narration is informative, with the appropriate British accent. 🙂

  4. I too very much enjoyed this video. Many wonders to see on WEIT, but this was very special. I especially liked the careful, loving detail used to explain the great variety and ways of life among these fishes.

    1. But aren’t you just a little concerned that we may have an aquatic nightjar on our hands?

      “Find the seahorse in this bed of kelp.”

  5. Great video; really interesting mimicry. And, of course, the best thing about mimicry is that there is no creationist explanation for it at all!

    1. Sure there is. Or, if there isn’t yet I’m sure a creationist could come up with one in a matter of seconds. Of course, it wouldn’t make any sense and would probably make Homer
      Simpson look like a genius, but when has that ever stopped them.

  6. How sad is it that these creatures are threatened because of their uses in “alternative medicine” — ugh! Just another example of how irrationality gets in the way of the more rational approach (to observe, protect, and otherwise leave alone).

    1. Sorry, no edit function here; I meant “‘traditional medicines'” (I accidentally put “‘alternative'”). But still, the point remains: Unscientific uses of a beautiful sea creature are interfering with the ecosystem in a bad, bad way.

      1. Quite understandable slip; indeed, both “traditional” and “alternative” are synonyms of “pretend”. 🙂

        1. Untested, Unverified, Potentially more harmful than no medicine at all, etc., exactly!

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