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 -- Seahorses first stood up sometime after 25 to 20 million years ago, when bodies of open water between Australia and Indonesia changed, leaving these horse-resembling bony fishes with shallow sea grass habitat, according to a new study.

The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, explains that an upright stature, shared by humans but which is extremely rare throughout the entire animal kingdom, allowed seahorses to reside in what was essentially a lawn under water.

The oldest seahorse 

fossils discovered to date have been uncovered in

Slovenia.

The 13-million-year-old finds, which include the only known extinct seahorse species, are shedding light on how the naturally weak swimmers managed to disperse around the world.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/photogalleries/seahorse-fossils/index.html.

 

 

Unfortunately for seahorses, their fantastic appearance has given rise to a rich tradition of myths about their magical powers, in particular their ability to work wonder cures. The Greek physician Dioscorides, writing in the Roman Empire of the first century A.D., recommended a mixture of charred seahorse and goose fat as a remedy for baldness.