A paper published in the journal ZooKeys describes a new species of pygmy seahorse. Named Hippocampus nalu or the Sodwana pygmy seahorse, it was found on Two Mile Reef at Sodwana Bay, South Africa. It is the first pygmy seahorse discovered in Africa and the Indian Ocean.

An “all-star” seahorse scientist team consisting of Graham Short, Louw Claassens, Richard Smith, Maarten De Brauwer, Healy Hamilton, Michael Stat, David Harasti have found the new species to have both distinct physical and genetic characteristics from its close relatives H. pontohi and H. japapigu. The genetic information suggests that H.nalu diverged around 13 million years ago.