Paradoxical Seahorse

Male carries the eggs in a brood pouch (Ref. 205).

The holotype was collected from mid-continental shelf benthos (102 m); at this depth, high energy waves sweep the bed of the Great Australian Bight, producing expanses of rippled sand interspersed with sponge and bryozoans stabilised 'islands'. The site has a complex, highly diversed assemblage of bryozoans, including Adeona, a number of bushy flexible species (Family Catenicellidae), 'lace corals' (Fam. Phidoloporidae) and some sponges, on coarse substrate of calcareous sand. The female holotype collected in late July had a greatly distended abdomen holding eleven hydrated oocytes approximately 2 mm in diameter (Ref. 85152).