help - is the father but becomes the mother and the fertilized eggs mature into well developed young in his pouch
What is it?
A seahorse
Thanks drwls, I was thinking it was either the seahorse or the darwin frog? Should I go with the seahorse?
Since the Darwin frog male carries tadpoles in its throat rather than a pouch, the seahorse answer is probably better.
Yes, you should go with the seahorse as the answer. The information you provided suggests that the organism in question is able to change its sex and has a pouch in which the fertilized eggs develop into well-developed young. Only seahorses exhibit this combination of characteristics.
To arrive at this answer, you can consider the unique reproductive behavior of seahorses. In seahorses, it is the males, not the females, that carry and give birth to the offspring. The female seahorse transfers her eggs to the male's pouch during mating, and the male then fertilizes and incubates the eggs until they hatch. This adaptation makes seahorses one of the few animal species in which males take on the role of pregnancy and childbirth.
On the other hand, the Darwin frog (also known as the Rhinoderma darwinii) is a species of frog found in Chile and Argentina. While male Darwin frogs do carry their young inside their vocal sacs, which is indeed an unusual behavior, it is different from the pouch-like structure found in seahorses. Therefore, the characteristics mentioned in your question, namely, the pouch and the ability to change gender, align more closely with seahorses than with Darwin frogs.