The hoodwinker sunfish of Ameland

In the winter of 1889, this sunfish washed ashore on Ameland, one of the Dutch islands. She (it’s a female sunfish) was determined to be the species Orthragoriscus mola at the time, by researcher Lidth de Jeude, which is an old name for Mola mola. Earlier this year, a study was published in which researchers described a new sunfish species within the genus Mola: Mola tecta. Previously, only two species of sunfish were known: Mola ramsayi and Mola mola. A good reason to have another good look at the enormous and historical sunfish of Naturalis!

And guess what? It turns out that Naturalis’ Mola mola is actually Mola tecta! Important features on which this sunfish is now recognized as the newest addition to the genus are the slender body, the absence of humps and bumps on the body and a flatter face than the other two species. So far, the other sightings of individuals that are known to be Mola tecta have been recorded in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. So, the fact that this individual has been found on a beach in The Netherlands is quite remarkable, to say the least: Ameland seems to be quite the change of destination! For now, researchers have just concluded that this individual sunfish had a broken GPS and drifted off-course…