A RECORD SUNFISH 



By Bashford Dean 



THE Museum has recently acquired a mounted specimen of a monster 

 sea sunfish, Mola mola, which was taken in 1910 off the coast of 

 southern California. It appears that its captor, Mr. D. H. Buxton, 

 "hooked it while angling." The sunfish has the reputation of being one of 

 the most abnormal of queer ^^ fishes. Itisdisc- 



shaped, and appears "all g; i ^^ head." It has 



lost the hinder trunk region f ; H» and with this 



the spinal cord — to a degree Bjj & indeed unique 



among back-boned animals. M ' A.. Thus the spinal 



cord of a sunfish a yard long M j i ' . ' ft measures only a 



small fraction of an inch in M length. 



Sunfishes are typically open- ff sea forms, seen 



10 feet in length 



11 feet in vertical measurement 



occasionally from the deck of 

 sometimes swimming at the 

 sides, and sometimes tilted, 

 "scale" obliquely into the 

 turbed and are said sometimes 

 the surface like porpoises. But 

 is known of their habits. It 

 to explain the "adaptations" 



an ocean liner, 

 surface on their 

 They usually 

 water when dis- 

 to jump above 

 in general little 

 is not possible 

 which this fish 



is supposed to have undergone, and the steps in its evolution. Several 

 of its earlier stages however, are known and they show how the tail re- 

 gion comes to be changed. Furthermore a clue as to the*." cause" of 

 its modifications was obtained by chance when the puzzle of the repro- 



370 



