What is special about Leafy Sea Dragon?
Leafy sea dragons are one of the coolest animals. The Leafy Sea Dragon has no known predators. Their leafy camouflage and spiny fins keep large fish from snacking on them. They slurp up their food, using their long snout like a drinking straw.
What skeleton does a Leafy Sea Dragon have?
bony skeleton
These help the dragons move through the water. They also have a bony skeleton. (In fact, its spine is why it is classified as a vertebrate.) Instead of scales their slender trunks are protected by a bony plates.
Do leafy sea dragons have teeth?
The leafy sea dragon is a type of seahorse that looks like leaves, and pretty much thrusts its lower half back and forth to move forward in the water. It doesn’t have any teeth. They can change their color to blend in but that ability relies on its diet, location, and stress level.
Do leafy sea dragons have stomachs?
Diet: Seadragons have no teeth or stomach but are ferocious predators of mysid shrimp and will also eat other small crustaceans, plankton and larval fish. Food is sucked into the long, pipe-like snout and swallowed whole.
What are the leafy sea dragon adaptations?
Slow-swimming and with fragile bodies, seadragons depend on camouflage to hide them from predators. Their leafy appendages, ability to change color to match their seaweed and seagrass habitats, and ability to sway like plants in the water current help protect them from predators.
What do Leafy Seadragon eat?
plankton crustaceans
Leafy seadragons eat small, plankton crustaceans but are small enough themselves and have sufficient vision to see and attack individual prey (unlike large filter feeders).
What kind of eyes does a leafy sea dragon have?
Sea dragons have eyes that can move independently of one another (while one eye looks one way the other one can look in a completely different direction). Breeding and caring for young: The most unusual fact about the leafy sea dragon is that the male becomes pregnant and gives birth to live young.
What are the names of the sea dragons?
Fast Facts: Sea Dragon. Common Name: Sea dragon, seadragon (common/weedy, leafy, ruby) Scientific Names: Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, Phycodurus eques, Phyllopteryx dewysea. Other Names: Glauert’s seadragon, Lucas’s seadragon.
Where does the leafy sea dragon lay its eggs?
Leafy sea dragon. Breeding and caring for young: The most unusual fact about the leafy sea dragon is that the male becomes pregnant and gives birth to live young. During mating the female lays 100 to 250 eggs onto a special brood patch on the underside of the male’s tail, where they are fertilised.
What are the appendages of a leafy seadragon?
Elaborate leaf-like appendages protrude from the head, body, and tail. They have transparent dorsal and pectoral fins that are small and have a very fine appearance but they have lost their caudal and pelvic fins. They have long sharp spines on each bony plate that may be used defensively.