Hippocampus slovenicus is an extinct species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of seahorse

Seahorse

Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...

 found in 2005 in the coprolitic horizon of the Tunjice

Tunjice

Tunjice is a dispersed settlement in the hills west of the town of Kamnik in Upper Carniola region of Slovenia.The Parish Church, dedicated to Saint Anne, lies on a hill above the settlement and is an imposing Baroque domed building...

 hills Lagerstätte

Lagerstätte

A Lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossil richness or completeness.Palaeontologists distinguish two kinds....

 in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 along with remains of the related species Hippocampus sarmaticus

Hippocampus sarmaticus

Hippocampus sarmaticus is an extinct species of seahorse, found in 2005 in the coprolitic horizon of the Tunjice hills Lagerstätte in Slovenia, along with the related Hippocampus slovenicus. The horizon dates 13 million years back to the lower Sarmatian during the middle Miocene period, making the...

. The horizon dates 13 million years back to the lower Sarmatian during the middle Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 period, making the two species the earlier known seahorse fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s in the world. The remains consist mostly of juvenile specimens and of head and backbones

Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...

 of adults.

The animals are believed to have lived among seagrass

Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...

es and macroalgae in the temperate shallow coastal waters of the western part of the central Paratethys

Paratethys

The Paratethys ocean, Paratethys sea or just Paratethys was a large shallow sea that stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to the Aral Sea in western Asia. The sea was formed during the Oxfordian epoch as an extension of the rift that formed the Central Atlantic Ocean and...

.

Further reading

• Choi C. (May 4, 2009) "PHOTOS: Oldest Seahorses Found; Help Solve Mystery." National Geographic news.
• Žalohar J. Fossil seahorses - treasure from the ancient seas.