Southern Sunfish Video Stock Footage

Mola alexandrini has a relatively small mouth and its teeth fused into a parrot-like beak. It can reach up to 3.3 m (11 ft) in length and 2,300 kg in mass, making it one of the two heaviest bony fish on Earth, only matched by its congener, the ocean sunfish. Their body is flat and round, with large fins that they swish back and forth to propel themselves with as they swim horizontally. Their skin has rough denticles, leathery texture, with brown and gray coloring with pale blotches until death when they turn white. Both mola species have no caudal bones, ribs, and pelvic fins and have fused vertebrae, leaving only their median fins to propel themselves. It can be recognized from the Mola mola by their lesser number of ossicles and lacking the vertical band of denticles at its base. Learn more about Southern Sunfish