Ocean Sunfish Mola mola
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Transcript of Ocean Sunfish Mola mola
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Ocean SunfishMola mola
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Taxonomy
• Phylum: Chordata• Subphylum: Vertebrata• Class: Actinopterygii• Division: Teleostei• Order:Tetraodontiformes
(triggerfish, boxfish, porcupine fish, pufferfish)
• Family: Molidae• Genus, Species: Mola
molahttp://divegeeks.com/images/SDShark/mola1.jpg
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Teleost and Tetradontiformes• Division Teleostei – the most dominant living
fishes – Teleosts account for 96% of all living fishes
• Order Tetradontiformes – the most highly derived fishes – “The pinnacle of teleostean evolution”– Characterized by a high degree of fusion or loss of
numerous bones in the head and body– Date back to the early Eocene (55 to 38 million years
ago)
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• World’s heaviest bony fish• Can grow to be 2m long and weigh as much as 1000kg
(2200 pounds) • The largest mola ever recorded was 2235 kg (4,927 lbs). • It measured 3.1 m (10 ft) from snout tip to "tail" fin and
4.26 m (14 ft) from dorsal fin to anal fin tip
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/mola.htm
www.mbayaq.org/aa/ timelineBrowser.asp?tf=72
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• Molas have a large number of cartilaginous elements or cartilage-lined bones in their skulls and in their fin supports.
• The body is essentially rectangular in side view with very tall, thin dorsal and anal fins that propel the fish
• They lack a true tail but have a “pseudocaudal” tail fin made up primarily of dorsal and anal fin rays
http://www.groton.k12.ct.us/WWW/fsr/student/spr04/Jessi/FISH.htm
http://www.bidp-balidiving.com/assets/images/page/BIDP1810%20Mola.jpg
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• They lack true teeth and instead have tooth plates that are shaped like a beak
• Mola mola comes from the latin word “millstone”• Their aptly named “sunfish” because they are usually
found basking on their sides at the surface
http://cordellbank.noaa.gov/images/wildlife/mola.jpg
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/images/sunteeth.jpg
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Mola diets
• Mostly pelagic feeders• Diet consists of jellyfish, Portuguese man-o-
war, ctenophores and salps. • Squid, sponges, serpent star bits, eel grass,
crustaceans, small fishes and deepwater eel larvae have also been found in M. mola guts
• Indicating that they forage both at the surface, among floating weeds, on the seafloor and into deep water
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Reproduction• Spawning habits
unknown• Capable of producing
300 million eggs, an apparent record among fishes
• After hatching, the larvae look more like pufferfish. They measure just 2.5 mm
• As they grow the spines disappear, as do their tails
http://www.oceansunfish.org/lifehistory.html
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Molas and parasites • Molas are infamous
for their impressive parasite load
• Up to 40 genera have been found on one individual
• Could bask on side to let gulls remove parasites
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/images/mmolapar.jpg&imgrefurl
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Parasites cont’d
• Molas have been seen frequenting kelp beds as well as other cleaning stations
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Predators
• Large portion of bycatch in Pacific
• Market in Asian culture
• Sea lions• Orcas• Parasites
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Molidae evolution
• Highly derived group – The most advanced tetraodontiforms are the three species of temperate and tropical molas (Molidae)
• Molidae has returned anatomically to a starting point in fish evolution
• It is therefore important to bring up that evolution does not mean moving from primitive to advanced forms
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“The mola’s rediscovery of the utility of cartilage underscores the observation that all living fishes are the successful result of the trial and error processes of mutation and natural selection”
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The Diversity of Fishes, Helfman G.S., B.B. Collette, and D.E. Facey, Massachusetts, Blackwell Science, Inc. 1999
http://www.oceansunfish.org/lifehistory.html