June 2003 Unknown

THIS MONTH'S WINNERS:

This year we held our June contest over into July rather than break for the summer. Here are the contest winners:

David Lennartz
College Teacher
Los Angeles

Tim Long
High School Teacher
Plaquemine, Louisiana

Joseph Kelich
Middle School Student
Freehold, New Jersey

Ivana Vesko Student,
Sofia, Bulgaria

Please note: Prize winners are now drawn each month from the total pool of correct answers for that month.

Thanks to all of those who submitted an entry to this contest.

Good luck this month!

A Thinner Finner - Syngnathus leptorhynchus

Everyone knows about sea horses - the amazing, slow-moving fish that capture our imaginations by their unusual habits and appearance - but how many people are familiar with this sea-horse relative, the pipefish? Like sea horses, pipefish are slow-moving fish that feed on tiny animals in the water column - the zooplankton. Pipefish are found in most of the world's oceans, but are more common in tropical waters, where they usually stay near coral reefs or other bottom surfaces.

The BAY PIPEFISH, Syngnathus leptorhynchus, lives on the West Coast of North America from Baja California, Mexico to Sitka, Alaska. It is most commonly found in bays among eelgrass (Zostera) where it is effectively camouflaged by its green color and long, thin shape resembling the blades of eelgrass. The scientific name, Syngnathus leptorhynchus, means means "slender snout with jaws that are locked together". As in sea horses, the mouth acts like a vacuum cleaner, sucking in plankton food, rather than biting its prey.

Also like sea horses, BAY PIPEFISH and other pipefish have an interesting method of raising their young. The father takes an active role in raising the offspring in a pouch on his belly where the female lays her eggs. The fertilized eggs develop through all of their embryonic stages in the males pouch, until they are finally released as swimming juveniles. This event can be viewed in our video on Marine Ecology, The Biology of Seashores.

For more on the evolution of fishes and other chordates, see our video, Branches on the Tree of Life: Chordates.

 

For a concise and revealing teaching video about Arthropods, get our video/DVD: Branches On the Tree of Life: Arthropods. For a rich overview of marine intertidal ecology, see our program: The Biology of Seashores.