It's been a nice, relaxing start to the year for me, but I'm finally getting back to editing photos.
While wrapping up the process of looking through my images from Ambon, I came across this one, which I had forgotten about:
A thorny seahorse (Hippocampus histrix) missing its snout and mouth
It's not a pretty image per se, but I think it's a relatively unusual situation. How often do you come across a seahorse without its characteristic elongated snout?
It was impossible to tell whether the seahorse actually had a functioning mouth and was just missing its schnoz, or if this hapless syngnathid was the victim of a recent attack that claimed its peculiar proboscis.
Subjectively...the seahorse sort of looked weak and depressed, but then again, I don't recall ever meeting a particularly ebullient specimen before.
Anyone ever come across anything similar?