Resembling miniature gee-gees makes perfect sense. Seahorses hide among blades of seagrass, or camouflage themselves on a coral colony, then wait for their prey – often minute crustaceans called copepods.
It turns out that having a narrow, elongated snout and big cheeks is the ideal combination
for life as stealthy ambush predators.
The shape of the head is hydrodynamic, so it slips through the water, producing almost no ripples that would alert a copepod to the danger it’s in.
Once within striking range, a seahorse flicks its snout upwards, releasing elastic energy stored at
the back of its head, like a catapult. In under a millisecond, it sucks in the hapless crustacean, puffing out those big, equine cheeks.
Employing this technique, known as pivot feeding, seahorses are tremendously successful hunters, with a 90% hit rate.
