> In which animal species do the males, and not the females, give birth to babies?And the answer: sea horses.The male seahorse has a pouch on his tail. When ready to have babies, the femaleseahorse deposits her eggs into the male's pouch. Male seahorses then carry thefertilized eggs up to 45 days before birth, when they can expel 2,000 babies ata time.Photo credit: Hans Hillewaert.From the Latin word Hippocampus, meaning "horse caterpillar," seahorses aretruly unique inhabitants of our ocean's waters. Beyond their reversed pregnancyprocess, seahorses are technically fish with qualities quite unlike most others.They have no scales, hardly a fin to their name (understandably, they're verypoor swimmers), and a snout. They defend their own territory, mate for extendedperiods of time, and even have an exoskeleton. In fact, their tough, bony makeupmakes them tough for other fish to digest, creating very few natural predators.Curious indeed. Seahorses don't quite mate for life, but they do date. Interestingly, seahorsesgreet their partner every morning for an elaborate dance consisting of twistsand twirls that can go on for hours. Evidently the dance helps keep theseahorses' relationships strong and healthy, while ensuring their reproductivecycles are properly synced. After a few reproduction cycles, seahorses move onto the next love interest (you know what they say about fish in the sea...).Seahorses might not have a stomach, but that hardly stops them from enjoying ameal. In fact, because of their unique digestive system, seahorses areconstantly eating tiny fish and planktonic copepods. They can even consume asmany as 3,000 small crustaceans a day!Learn more about seahorses below.