HIPPOCAMPUS [aka HIPPOCAMP]

[noun]

1. the genus for seahorses. “Hippocampus” comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning “horse” and kampos meaning “sea monster”. Seahorses are mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world, and prefer to live in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds, estuaries, coral reefs, or mangroves.

2. a mythological creature shared by Phoenician and Greek mythology, though the name by which it is recognised is purely Greek; it became part of Etruscan mythology. It has typically been depicted as a horse in its forepart with a coiling, scaly, fishlike hindquarter.

3. a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation.

[Susan Seddon-Boulet]

NB: featured again so quickly due to popular request. Click here for previous entry.