Sunday, 3 May 2015

Creature 215: Phycodurus eques

There be dragons
Description:
Phycodurus eques is a fish which you might have heard of referred to as the leafy sea deagon.

The weird leafy lobes on their body are a form of camouflage giveing them the appearence of seaweed. They can even change color to match the seaweed and their movements mimic floating seaweed.

Distribution:
The leafy sea dragon is found on the southern coast of Australia.

Classification:
You are probably thinking it looks like a seahorse, well that's because the genus Phycodurus is in the same family as the sea horses. Phycodurus eques is the only member of this genus.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Syngnathiformes
Family: Syngnathidae
Genus: Phycodurus
Species: Phycodurus eques

Image Links:

1 comment:

  1. nice to know this delightful creature exists! thank you!

    ReplyDelete