Which horse is the size of a pea?

In the waters near Derawan Island off Kalimantan in Indonesia, scientists have made a remarkable discovery: a tiny horse no bigger than a pea! But it’s not the kind of horse with hooves. It’s actually a seahorse!

The tiny seahorse is only 13 milimetres long, and has been given the name of “Satomi’s pygmy seahorse”, in honor of a dive guide names Satomi Onishi, who collected the first samples of the seahorse. They live at the bottom of reefs, safe beneath coral overhangs, and when they’re born, the jet-black babies are only 3 milimetres long!

If Satomi’s pygmy seahorse is one of the miniature horses of the seahorse world, the pot-bellied seahorse is a clydesdale. At over a foot long, the pot-bellied seahorse is the largest of the seahorses, and a very strong swimmer. They can swim hundreds of metres in a day!

Some people think that seahorses are crustaceans because they have skeletons on the outside of their bodies like crabs or lobsters, but seahorses are actually fish. They are bony fish that have lost their scales, and swim using tiny fins on their sides and backs.

Each seahorse is also crowned with a coronet of spines on its head, which is as unique as a human fingerprint! They can also change colour and move their eyes independently of each other, just like a chameleon does. Seahorses are truly remarkable fish!