Splash Zone: Rocky Shore Animals

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Sea dragons

ROCKY SHORE HOME

These fish look a lot like their seahorse cousins, but they have leaflike fins that help them hide among seaweeds and grasses. They drift and sway in the current, invisible to predators and prey.

Fun fact: As with seahorses, it's the father who bears the babies. A male seahorse has a pouch on his belly for carrying eggs, but a dragon dad carries eggs on the underside of his tail.

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Slurping snouts

The tubelike mouth of sea dragon works like a drinking straw. A hungry dragon waits until its prey ventures near, then sucks it up. Each day, a single sea dragon slurps thousands of tiny shrimplike animals.

Different dragons

There are two kinds of sea dragons: weedy and
leafy

. Both live along the edge of the rocky shores of Australia. Leafies have long, flowing fins. Weedies are more twiglike with fewer and smaller fins.

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