Wildlife

New Species Of Sunfish

A new species of sunfish has been discovered for the first time in 130 years after washing up on a New Zealand beach. The two-tonne creature has been named Hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) because of its elusiveness.

Iconic ocean sunfishes are the heaviest and most distinctive of all bony fishes, with some species weighing in excess of two tonnes and growing to three metres in length. The newly discovered species, named the Hoodwinker Sunfish, is thought to approach a similar size, researchers said. Marianne Nyegaard from Murdoch University in Australia uncovered the new species while researching the population genetics of ocean sunfish in the Indo-pacific region.