Genetic Insights Regarding the Taxonomy, Phylogeography and Evolution of Ocean Sunfishes (Molidae: Tetraodontiformes)

A review of giants: Examining the species identities of the world's heaviest extant bony fishes (ocean sunfishes, family Molidae)

“…It is known, however, that M. alexandrini occurs in the north‐west and south‐west Pacific oceans (Nyegaard et al ., 2018b; Sawai et al ., 2018a). In turn, this species has to date not been reported, for example, from North America (Caldera et al ., 2020; Sawai et al ., 2020), perhaps explaining the surprising lack of ‘very large molid’ records from this area. Further research is needed, including research of local archives, and weighing, measuring and reporting of specimens in future.…”

“…These areas encompass the core distribution of all three Mola species and Ma. lanceolatus (Caldera et al ., 2020; Nyegaard et al ., 2018b; Sawai et al ., 2018a). We also undertook an extensive (although not exhaustive) internet search using standard search engines, primarily in English and Japanese.…”

“…Mola spp. can be difficult to identify to species level based on morphology, in particular for small specimens ( e.g ., < 60 cm L T ), but species‐specific traits develop with size and large specimens ( e.g ., > 200 cm L T ) – the subject of this paper – are typically readily identifiable (Caldera et al ., 2020; Frafjord et al ., 2020; Nyegaard et al ., 2018a; Sawai et al ., 2018a). In this study, species identification was based on the diagnostic taxonomic characters typically visible in images, namely the shape of the clavus margin and the presence or absence of the following: (1) a head bump, and/or (2) a chin bump, and/or (3) lateral ‘ridges’, and/or (4) a clavus smooth band back‐fold (Table 1) (see Nyegaard et al ., 2018a; Sawai et al ., 2018a, 2020).…”

“…Currently, five species are recognized in the family Molidae: ocean sunfish Mola mola (Linnaeus 1758) sensu Sawai et al (2018a), giant sunfish Mola alexandrini (Ranzani 1839) sensu Sawai et al (2018a), hoodwinker sunfish Mola tecta Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue, & Stewart 2017, sharptail sunfish Masturus lanceolatus (Liénard 1840) and slender sunfish Ranzania laevis (Pennant 1776) (Fricke et al, 2021). Mola mola differs slightly genetically and morphologically between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but these two clades are currently treated as one species pending further taxonomic research (Caldera et al, 2020;Sawai et al, 2018aSawai et al, , 2020. Of the Molidae, all but R. laevis reaches total lengths (L T ) over 2 m (Nyegaard et al, 2018a,b;Sawai et al, 2018aSawai et al, , 2020.…”

The heaviest bony fish in the world: A 2744‐kg giant sunfish Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839) from the North Atlantic

“…The round ocean sunfishes comprise the heaviest extant bony fishes, attaining more than 3 m in total length (TL) and over 2000 kg (Pope et al ., 2010; Sawai & Nyegaard, 2022), making them one of the most emblematic fishes in the ocean. The genus is ubiquitous in temperate and tropical seas, and is composed of three species: the ocean sunfish Mola mola (Linnaeus, 1758), the giant sunfish Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839) and the hoodwinker sunfish Mola tecta Nyegaard et al ., 2017 (Caldera et al ., 2020; Sawai et al ., 2020). M. alexandrini and M .…”