They Discovered a “New” Seahorse – and It’s So Small!

Researchers in South Africa discovered a new species of pygmy seahorse – and it’s the first pygmy seahorse they have ever found in all of the Indian Ocean and African continent!

This “demonstrates that there are still many discoveries to be made in the oceans, even in shallow waters near the coast,” says Thomas Trnski, head of natural sciences at New Zealand’s Auckland Museum, adding that most pygmy seahorses have been discovered in only the past two decades.

The discovery, published in the journal ZooKeys, has shocked scientists as all seven species of pygmy seahorse – minus the Japanese pygmy seahorse – live in the southwestern Pacific’s Coral Triangle, and this new tiny species was found 5,000 miles away, in eastern South Africa.