''Mola tecta'', the hoodwinker sunfish, belongs to the family

Molidae The Molidae comprise the family of the molas or ocean sunfishes, unusual fish whose bodies come to an end just behind the dorsal and anal fins, giving them a "half-fish" appearance. They are also the largest of the ray-finned bony fish, with the ...

and genus '' Mola''. It is closely related to the more widely known

ocean sunfish The ocean sunfish or common mola (''Mola mola'') is one of the largest bony fish in the world. It was misidentified as the heaviest bony fish, which was actually a different species, ''Mola alexandrini''. Adults typically weigh between . The spe ...

(''Mola mola''). The Latin word "tecta" means hidden. The word "hidden" was adopted for the name because the fish has blended in among other species of sunfish for a long time and has only been discovered recently. Discovered on a beach near

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand, in 2015, it was the first new species of sunfish to be identified in 130 years. ''Mola tecta'' are mostly discovered in the temperate region of the Southern Hemisphere in the water near Australia, New Zealand, Southern Chile and Southern Africa. It was first described by

Marianne Nyegaard Marianne Nyegaard is a Danish Marine biology, marine biologist who specializes in the study of ocean sunfish. She is known for identifying the ocean sunfish species ''Mola tecta''. Career As a PhD student at Murdoch University in Australia, Ny ...

, a marine scientist who studied ocean sunfish for her PhD.

Description

The hoodwinker sunfish is a congener of (in the same genus as) the more widely known

, ''Mola mola''. ''Mola tecta'', like other ''Mola'' species, has a flat, almost symmetrical oval shape. It has a smooth body shape, no bump and has a maximum length of 242cm (about 7.9 feet). It does not have spines in its fins nor real caudal fin (tail fin). Its scales have evolved into small spines. Like

cartilaginous fish Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class that contains the cartilaginous fishes that have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fishes'', which have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue ...

, ''Mola tecta'' has

counter shading Countershading, or Thayer's law, is a method of camouflage in which an animal's coloration is darker on the top or upper side and lighter on the underside of the body. This pattern is found in many species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and ...

, which means that it has a darker color on the dorsal side than on the ventral side. Compared to other '' Mola'' species, ''Mola tecta'' is slimmer, has a sleeker adult body shape, and lacks a protruding

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is c ...

and lumps along the tail fin. It reaches up to three meters in length and can weigh up to .

Parasites Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

are found in all the dissected ''Mola tecta''.

History

There are three

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

under the genus Mola: ''Mola mola'', ''

Mola alexandrini The giant sunfish or bumphead sunfish (''Mola alexandrini''), also known as the Ramsay's sunfish, southern sunfish, southern ocean sunfish, short sunfish or bump-head sunfish in many parts of the world,Diane J. Bray, 2011, Short Sunfish, or even ...

'', and ''Mola tecta''. Mola_mola_géant_Bali

''Mola mola'' is the most common known ocean sunfish and was found in 1758 and ''Mola alexandrini'' (also called ''Mola ramsayi'') was found 81 years afterward, in 1839. In comparison to its two relatives, ''Mola tecta'' was found recently in 2014. In 2004, ten years before ''Mola tecta'' was officially named in 2014, Japanese researchers found out that there was a new ''Mola'' species based on the genetic information they obtained from the Australian water. However, they were not able to obtain more information about this new ''Mola'' species and they did not know exactly what this ''Mola'' species looked like. According to Nyegaard, the first person who described ''Mola tecta'', the ''Mola tecta'' are hard to study because they are hard to find and their huge size makes them difficult to store.

Distribution

Discovered on a beach near

, New Zealand, in 2014, the hoodwinker sunfish was the first new species of sunfish to be identified in 130 years. It is thought to live primarily in the Southern Hemisphere and has been found in waters off New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Chile. There are, however, three recorded cases of it being found in the

Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...

: one (previously thought to be a ''Mola mola'') in

Ameland Ameland (; West Frisian: It Amelân) is a municipality and one of the West Frisian Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. It consists mostly of sand dunes. It is the third major island of the West Frisians. It neighbours islands ...

in the Netherlands in 1889 and a 7-foot (2.1m) specimen that washed up near

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

in 2019. ''

'', another ''Mola species'' has been found in the Southern Pacific. ''Mola mola'', in comparison, is the most widespread species and has been found in all the major oceans except for the polar area.

Diet

Their diet consists of

salps A salp (plural salps, also known colloquially as “sea grape”) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas) is a barrel-shaped, planktic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body, one of the most efficient ...

and nectonic siphonophore because these two organisms are found in the digestive tract of ''Mola tecta''.

References

External links

* The hoodwinker sunfish discussed in

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Critter of the Week ''Critter of the Week'' is a weekly RNZ National programme about endangered and neglected native plants and animals of New Zealand. Beginning in 2015, ''Critter of the Week'' is an approximately 15-minute discussion between Nicola Toki of the ...