Seahorses reside in the only family in the animal kingdom, whose males handle pregnancy --Syngnathidae.
The proud fathers carry their future horses in a brood pouch for about 24 days of gestation.
Until now, science has always been a bit foggy on just how much of a role these dads play in providing essential nutrients to their young during pregnancy. But new research just published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution asserts that male seahorses do much more to nourish the young they carry than previously realized -- to the point of being awfully, well, mammalian.
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"Surprisingly, seahorse dads do a lot of the same things human moms do," study co-author Camilla Whittington, of the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences, said in a press release.
"Seahorse babies get a lot of nutrients via the egg yolk provided by their mothers," Whittington explained, "but the pouch of the fathers has also evolved to meet the complex challenges of providing additional nutrients and immunological protection, and ensuring gas exchange and waste removal."
Whittington and her team think it's likely that papa seahorses deliver such care by secreting into the brood pouch essential nutrients such as lipids (for energy) and calcium (for skeleton-making). The embryos then absorb those nutrients.
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The researchers also found, via analysis of brood pouch samples, that seahorses switch genes on and off during pregnancy in a manner similar to humans.
"Regardless of your species," said Whittington, "pregnancy presents a number of complex challenges, like ensuring you can provide oxygen and nutrients to your embryos. We have evolved independently to meet these challenges, but our research suggests that even distantly related animals use similar genes to manage pregnancy and produce healthy offspring."
Have a look at the video below, if you're curious to see how the male seahorse sends its young out into the world.
Christian Science Monitor
Pregnant women are a lot like male seahorses, say scientists
Researchers find surprising similarities between the pregnancies of seahorses and humans.
What do a seahorse father and a human mother have in common? Pregnancy.
But the similarities go further than simply carrying a baby, say scientists.
"Surprisingly, seahorse dads do a lot of the same things human mums do," said Camilla Whittington, co-author of a new study, in a press release.
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Although seahorse dads carry their young for just 24 days and human gestation lasts nine months, what happens during pregnancy in both animals is remarkably similar, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
The brood pouch of a male seahorse is much more than a hangout for developing embryos. The pouch also nourishes and protects the growing swimmers, she explains.
"Seahorse babies get a lot of nutrients via the egg yolk provided by their mothers, but the pouch of the fathers has also evolved to meet the complex challenges of providing additional nutrients and immunological protection, and ensuring gas exchange and waste removal,” said Dr. Whittington.
Those additional nutrients include energy-rich lipids and calcium to support the growth of tiny seahorse bones. The researchers think the embryos absorb these nutrients when they are secreted into the brood pouch.
The similarities between seahorse and human pregnancy don't stop there.
By examining samples taken from seahorse brood pouches, the researchers determined that the some of the seahorses' genes are remarkably similar to that of diverse live-bearing mammals, reptiles, and fish, suggesting that there is a "common toolkit of genes regulating pregnancy in divergent evolutionary lineages."
“Regardless of your species, pregnancy presents a number of complex challenges, like ensuring you can provide oxygen and nutrients to your embryos,” said Whittington. “We have evolved independently to meet these challenges, but our research suggests that even distantly related animals use similar genes to manage pregnancy and produce healthy offspring.”
Seahorses are part of the only known family of animals, Syngnathidae, in which males take care of pregnancy.
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