Facts about the Sunfish (Mola Mola)
- 07
A sunfish's dorsal and anal fins can reach heights of 11 feet, making them as tall as a basketball hoop when the creature swims upright near the ocean surface.
- 06
In addition to their flattened body shape, ocean sunfish possess a specialized pharyngeal jaw system that allows them to crush hard-shelled prey like sea urchins and mollusks with remarkable force.
- 05
Parasitic sea lice can attach to mola mola's skin in such large numbers that some specimens have been observed with over 100 individual lice simultaneously feeding on their gelatinous bodies.
- 04
Sunfish larvae consume copepod plankton voraciously, increasing their body mass by 2.6 million times between hatching and adulthood, the largest proportional growth of any vertebrate.
- 03
Mola mola lacks a true tail fin, instead possessing a rounded caudal fin called a clavus that comprises nearly one-third of its body length.
- 02
Ocean sunfish can weigh up to 5,000 pounds, making them the heaviest bony fish species despite lacking scales and having a gelatinous body composition.
- 01
Up to 300 million eggs per spawning season allows the ocean sunfish to produce more offspring than any other vertebrate.