Mola Tecta - Hoodwinker Sunfish - Profile | Facts

(Last Updated On: April 13, 2021)

Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish is a deep-sea fish with a gigantic body size. It is closely related to the more well-known sea sunfish (Mola mola).

The Latin word “tekta” means hidden. The word “hidden” was adopted for the name because fish have been mixed with other species of sunfish for a long time and this has only recently been discovered.

Discovered on a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand in 2015, Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish is the first species to identify sunfish in 130 years.

Molle tecta are found mostly in equatorial regions of the Southern Hemisphere in waters close to Australia, New Zealand, southern Chile, and South Africa. It was first described by Marine Naigard, a sea scientist who studied sea sunfish to do her Ph.D.

Description

Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish is a conductor of sea sunfish, mola mola in the same genus. Like other mola species, the molar texture is almost parallel to the oval-shaped plane.

It has a sleek body shape, no fade, and has a maximum length of 242 cm (about 7.9 ft). It has no spine on the wings or a real graduated fin which is also called the tail fin.

Its fibers have evolved into smaller vertebrae like other cartilaginous fishes, the mola texture has a counter shed which means it has a darker appearance on the dorsal side than the ventral side.

Compared with other Mola species, the mola texture is thinner, has an adult body shape, and lacks splinter and golf with tail fins. It is larger than other sunfish species, weighing up to three meters in length and weighing two tons (2.5 tall tons; 2.2 short tons). Parasites are found in all isolated mola textures.

History

There are three species under the Molidi family: Molar mola, Molar alexandrini and Molela tecta.

The mola molasses are the most well-known sea sunfish and were found in 1758, and the molar alexandrini (also called mola ramsayi) was found 5 years later. In 1883, Mola Alexandrini was found. Compared to its two relatives, the Molla tech was recently discovered in 2014.

Ten years before the mola tector was officially named in 2014, Japanese researchers learned that there are new mola species based on genetic information obtained from Australian waters. However, they have not been able to find out more about this new mola species and they do not know what this mola species looks like.

According to Nougard, the first person who described mole tech, mole tech is hard to study because they are hard to find and their huge size makes them difficult to store.

Distribution

Found on a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, Hoodwinker sunfish is the first species to identify in 5 years. It is thought to initially inhabit the southern hemisphere and has been found in the waters of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Chile.

However, two articles were recorded in the Northern Hemisphere: one in Amland, the Netherlands (previously thought to be Mola mola), and a 6-foot (2.5 m) sample was washed up in Santa Barbara, California, in 2002.

Mola Ramsay, Other Mola species have been found in the South Pacific. By comparison, mola mala is the most widespread species and has been found in all major seas except the polar regions.

Diet

Their diet contains soaps and nectonic siphonophores as these two organisms are found in the digestive tract of the mollusk.

SeaFish