Male Seahorses Get Pregnant and Give Birth

In almost every animal that carries its young, the female does the carrying. Seahorses reverse the arrangement. NOAA’s National Ocean Service states that seahorses and their close relatives, sea dragons, are the only species in which the male gets pregnant and gives birth, and calls this a unique adaptation in the animal kingdom. NOAA describes how it works. After a courtship dance that may go on for hours or days, the female seahorse transfers her mature eggs into the male’s brood pouch, where they are fertilized. The pregnancy that follows usually lasts from two to four weeks. At the end of it, strong muscular contractions in the male eject the young. NOAA notes that seahorses are members of the pipefish family.