Giant sunfish

Giant sunfish
A giant sunfish swimming amongst a small school of pilot fish while a scuba diver looks on in the background
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Tetraodontiformes
Family: Molidae
Genus: Mola
Species:
M. alexandrini
Binomial name
Mola alexandrini
(Ranzani, 1839)[1]
Synonyms
  • Orthragoriscus eurypterus Philippi 1892
  • Orthragoriscus ramsayi Giglioli 1839[2]
  • Mola ramsayi Giglioli 1883[3]

The giant sunfish or bumphead sunfish (Mola alexandrini),[3] (also known as the Ramsay's sunfish, southern sunfish, southern ocean sunfish, short sunfish or bump-head sunfish in various parts of the world),[4] is a fish belonging to the family Molidae. It is closely related to the more widely known Mola mola, and is found in the Southern Hemisphere.[5] With a specimen found dead near the Azores in 2021 weighing in at 2744 kg (6049 lb) it is the largest extant bony fish species in terms of maximum recorded mass by a wide margin. It can be found basking on its side occasionally near the surface, which is thought to be used to re-heat themselves after diving in cold water for prey, recharge their oxygen stores, and attract gulls to free them of parasites.[2]

  1. ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel, eds. (April 2024). "Mola alexandrini". FishBase.
  2. ^ a b Appeltans, W., Bouchet, P., Boxshall, G.A., Fauchald, K., Gordon, D.P., Hoeksema, B.W., Poore, G.C.B., van Soest, R.W.M., Stöhr, S., Walter, T.C., Costello, M.J. (eds.) (2010) World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference museum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Diane J. Bray, 2011, Short Sunfish, or even. Mola ramsayi, in Fishes of Australia, accessed 02 Feb 2014, http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/784 Archived 2015-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Molas - Mola - Overview - Encyclopedia of Life". Encyclopedia of Life.[permanent dead link]