Males carry the eggs, and until now it had been thought that it was the females who selected their mating partners from among the males they judged most capable of looking after their offspring.
This theory has now been contradicted by the findings of a research team from the University of Zurich, which claims that it is the males who get to choose their mate - and big is apparently best.
The scientists made their discoveries while studying the courtship rituals of pot-bellied seahorses (Hippocampus abdominalis). While males seemed to be very particular about the size of their mate, females were found to be far less selective.
Seahorses are unique in their reproductive process: the female lays her eggs in the brood pouch of the male, which fertilises and carries them until they are ready to hatch. Unlike most male animals above and below water, the seahorses were discriminating about their partners – probably because they have more at stake in the rearing process.
The males' attraction towards larger mates is regarded purely as a matter of survival; bigger females produce more and bigger eggs and, consequently, larger offspring, so are likely to have more reproductive success. The preference among males for larger mates has become so well-established that females have evolved to be 15-20% bigger than males.
Scientists believe that these courtship patterns are common to other seahorse species, and a new study in the Sea Life centre network across the UK is being carried out to determine whether this is the case.
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