The bullneck seahorse (''Hippocampus Minotaur'') is a

pygmy seahorse The pygmy seahorses comprise several species of tiny seahorse in the syngnathid family or Syngnathidae (seahorses and pipefish). Family Syngnathidae is part of order Syngnathiformes, which contains fishes with fused jaws that suck food into tu ...

in the genus ''

Hippocampus The hippocampus (: hippocampi; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , 'seahorse'), also hippocampus proper, is a major component of the brain of humans and many other vertebrates. In the human brain the hippocampus, the dentate gyrus, and the ...

''. This seahorse has never been found in the wild, and little is known about its natural habitat. The only known specimens were collected on the coast of Eden, Australia. It is thought to live in sand beds at the bottom of the ocean, "64 - 100 meters below sea level" possibly wrapping its prehensile tail around gorgonian corals. The seahorse is among the 25 “most wanted lost” species that are the focus of Re:wild's “Search for Lost Species” initiative. Martin F. Gomon produced the first description of ''Hippocampus minotaur'' in '' Memoirs of Museum Victoria'' in 1997. It is still unknown if it will ever be found again without proper investigation or equipment because of the depth it resides at. Visually it is similar to other

species but with a wide neck, snubbed face, and a small body with a small pectoral fin, hence the scientific name having "Minotaur" because of its large head to body ratio. It has a possibly yellow orange coloration that is used to blend in to the natural coral sea beds off the deep coasts of Australia. But even at that it is still questioned on its nature.

References

bullneck seahorse Fauna of New South Wales Taxa named by Martin F. Gomon bullneck seahorse Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Syngnathiformes-stub