Sea dragons are some of my favourite creatures on this planet!
They are actually fish and siblings to another weakness of mine~seahorses
(I won't be able to resist a separate post about them)!
These magical creatures are found along the southern and western coasts of Australia. Their leafy protrusions are not used for propolsion at all - they serve as camouflage only - sea dragons are trying to pretend they are seaweed...
Female sea dragons lay 250 bright pink eggs - through a long tube, they deposit them on a male sea dragon's tail and he cares for them until they hatch...then, the male shakes his tail gently, including against rocks and weeds, to help the little ones leave their eggs....
Despite the fact that they eat tiny fish and shrimp, they do not have teeth!
Hello, Beautiful! You can come and live in my bathtub any time!
Photo credits: MikeJonesPhoto(2), KentSmith9, Matt Tworkowski, William Bullimore (all Flickr)
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How many times have I visited your blog and said..."me too!" ?????
ReplyDeleteWell, here I am again to say, "me too!!!" Leafy sea dragons are amazing!! One of my absolute favorite creatures (apart from the sloth, of course :-D)
Nature continues to amazzzze me!
ReplyDeleteIncredible AJ!!
xo
New to me - they look quite different to seahorses, not as cute.
ReplyDeleteIn your bathtub?!
:)
Hi AJ,
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing....I am always totally flabbergasted when I see photographs of sea dragons. I just can't believe that they are real.....the same goes for sea horses. I LOVE them. I also have a soft spot for kingfishers and hummingbirds....slightly different, I know but on a similar level. I can never understand how something as beautiful as all the above, ever evolved. These photographs are just out of this world !! XXXX
I SOOOO love them! I had a client that let me paint one in their little girl's nursery, and it was so much fun! Fanciful, delicate, and carefree all wrapped up into one little creature. P.S. Hope you're doing well and Canada is warming up for you!
ReplyDeleteHeather