seahorse
Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Short-snouted seahorse on knotted wrack. The animal was caught at 51°36′18.48″N 2°40′56.92″E / 51.6051333°N 2.6824778°E / 51.6051333; 2.6824778 on the Oosthinder banks in the Belgian part of the North Sea
Hans Hillewaert · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 320 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The short-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus hippocampus) is a species of seahorse in the family Syngnathidae. It is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the North Atlantic, particularly around Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the Canary Islands, with small populations extending from the Atlantic into the North Sea.
Their preferred habitat is shallow muddy waters, estuaries, or seagrass beds.
Wikipedia contributors, Short-snouted seahorse; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:33:49.908426+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- seahorse
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Syngnathiformes
- Family
- Syngnathidae
- Genus
- Hippocampus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSyngnathiformes
- familySyngnathidae Bonaparte, 1831
- subfamilySyngnathinae Bonaparte, 1831
- genusHippocampus Rafinesque, 1810
- speciesHippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hippocampus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hippocampus algiricus Kaup, 1856 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus angustus Günther, 1870 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus barbouri Jordan & Richardson, 1908 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus bargibanti Whitley, 1970 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| giraffe seahorseHippocampus camelopardalis Bianconi, 1854 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus capensis Boulenger, 1900 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus casscsio Zhang, Qin, Wang & Lin, 2016 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus debelius Gomon & Kuiter, 2009 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| lined seahorseHippocampus erectus Perry, 1810 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus fisheri Jordan & Evermann, 1903 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pacific seahorseHippocampus ingens Girard, 1858 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus jugumus Kuiter, 2001 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Gasterosteus equus Cabrera, Pérez & Haenseler, 1817 Cabrera, Pérez & Haenseler, 1817 | synonym |
| Hippocampus heptagonus Rafinesque, 1810 Rafinesque, 1810 | synonym |
| Hippocampus vulgaris Cloquet, 1821 Cloquet, 1821 | synonym |
| Syngnathus hippocampus Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
| Hippocampus atrichus De la Pylaie, 1835 De la Pylaie, 1835 | synonym |
| Hippocampus antiquorum Leach, 1814 Leach, 1814 | synonym |
| Hippocampus antiquus Risso, 1827 Risso, 1827 | synonym |
| Hippocampus brevirostris Schinz, 1822 Schinz, 1822 | synonym |
| Hippocampus europaeus Ginsburg, 1933 Ginsburg, 1933 | synonym |
| Hippocampus pentagonus Rafinesque, 1810 Rafinesque, 1810 | synonym |
| Hippocampus jubatus De la Pylaie, 1835 De la Pylaie, 1835 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=127380 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3LZLW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.