eli5 how is a male seahorse able to give birth?

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If it has testicles doesn’t that make it a male? Does it have a uterus? How is a baby able to grow if not in a uterus?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Most fish utilize *external fertilization*: the male releases a cloud of sperm into the water, and the female deposits her eggs into the cloud. Seahorse reproduction is essentially a variation on this theme, except that the cloud of sperm is released into the male’s pouch rather than the open water. The male actually has to fill the pouch with seawater first, or the sperm won’t release. Then the female uses her ovipositor to deposit the eggs into the cloud, which happens to be in the pouch.

And that’s pretty much it. The male’s pouch isn’t like the mammalian uterus, which most mammals use to nourish their embryos as they grow. Nor is it like the pouch marsupials use to provide milk to their joeys. It’s just a safe place for the eggs to develop and hatch.

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