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“That’s really what motivated our study–how do those baby seahorses actually breathe, if you will, inside the brood pouch?”

As the embryos grew, the brood pouch became thinner and sprouted numerous blood vessels, just like a mammalian placenta during embryonic development, the researchers report this month in Placenta.

Within 24 hours of giving birth, the male’s brood pouch had reverted to its prepregnancy form.

The brood pouch reached its thinnest point in late-term pregnancy.

Now, new research finds the male’s brood pouch—which can hold up to 1000 baby seahorses at a time—develops and functions like a human placenta.