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Long-snouted Seahorse

Hippocampus guttulatus

Status: not enough data, but all seahorses due to warming oceans and pollution, as well as trade for aquarium and chinese medicine.

From the ancient Phoenician city-state of Tyre, one of the earliest depictions of a hippocampus can be found showing the god Melqart riding upon a creature that has the head of a horse, tail of a dolphin, and wings.

The name that we know this beast by, the hippocampus, comes from later Greek mythology. Poseidon, god of the sea, rode in a chariot drawn by these mythic creatures who had serpentine coils, fish-fin manes, and a horse's head. They cut through the waves of the sea with the swiftness of equine mounts upon land and with the fierce wildness of the tumbling ocean waves. When fishermen caught seahorses in their nets, they were said to be the offspring of Poseidon's hippocampi.

 

References:
Israel Antiquities Authority, Yizre'el Valley silver hoard http://www.antiquities.org.il/hoards_eng.asp

"Poseidon - Greek Mythology", Encyclopedia Britannica, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Poseidon