Mola ramsayi

Mola ramsayi

Mola ramsayi is a rare and little known species of sunfish ( Molidae ). The range of the species is known only imprecisely. Catches are from the southwest Pacific in Australia and New Zealand, from the southeastern Pacific in Chile and from the southeastern Atlantic Ocean in South Africa, but possibly the species occurs in tropical and temperate seas throughout the southern hemisphere. She lives there in depths up to 670 meters.

Features

Mola ramsayi reaches a maximum length of three meters, as the better-known ocean sunfish ( Mola mola ), which it resembles in its outer shape confusingly. The most important distinguishing feature is the apparent tail fin ( clavus ), which is supported at Mola ramsayi of 16 fin rays, of which there are 12 bones, while there are only 12 fin rays in Mola mola, including 8 to 9 filled with bones. In Mola ramsayi the bones are close together and are wider than the space between them, Mola mola in the bones are less wide than the space and they have a greater distance from each other.