Scientists Make Incredible Breakthrough As They Identify The Larva Of One Of The Oddest-Shaped And Most Magnificent Creatures In The Ocean
If you've ever thought the ocean is a pretty scary place, then you're right; it can be. There's a reason why people are afraid of the sea, even just from watching Shark Week.
However, despite this, there's still some beauty to behold, which comes in many shapes and sizes. The ocean is home to some of the most bizarre and fascinating creatures on the planet, most of which have not yet been discovered.
This piece features a well-known oddity of the sea, known as the bump-head sunfish (Mola alexandrini), but with a little secret that scientists have been trying to uncover for years. This creature is considered the largest bony fish in the world and can grow up to 3 meters long (approximately 10 feet) and weigh over 2.5 tonnes.
As magnificent as the bump-head sunfish is, scientists were unable to obtain a clear picture of the developmental stages of this creature from infancy. This changed recently as they recorded a breakthrough discovery after years of hard work.
For a long time, Mola larvae remained a mystery to scientists and the wider population interested in this creature. Thanks to the combined efforts of a team of experts from Australia and New Zealand, the remarkably rare form of this creature has been uncovered.
Here's a glimpse of the Mola alexandrini in infancy:
A larval Mola alexandrini collected off the New South Wales coast, Australia.
As magnificent as the Mola alexandrini is, scientists were unable to obtain a clear picture of the developmental stages of this sunfish species from infancy. This changed recently as they recorded a breakthrough discovery after years of hard work.
Scuba diver and sunfish expert Dr. Marianne Nyegaard from the Auckland War Museum explained that:
This is the first time we have been able to genetically identify a Mola alexandrini larval specimen anywhere in the world.
Dr. Nyegaard, while commenting on the sunfish larvae collected off the Australian coast in 2017 by the CSIRO RV Investigator, revealed that:
Larval fishes often look nothing like their adult form—and for sunfish larvae, none of the features used to identify the adult sunfish are visible or relevant in the minute larval specimens—making the identification particularly hard.
Scientists capture rare footage of adult Mola getting cleaned.
It is estimated that a female sunfish of 1.5 meters (5 feet) in length can produce as many as 300 million eggs in a single breeding season, making them the most fecund vertebrate on Earth.
Given that sunfish are so incredibly fecund, it is an enigma why their eggs have never been found in the wild, and why sunfish larvae are so few and far between—where are they? Dr. Nyegaard remarked.
Perhaps the answer to this dilemma lies in the size of their eggs. Due to sunfish eggs being so small, with an average diameter of 0.13 cm (smaller than a popcorn kernel), it's incredibly difficult to find a single one in a vast expanse of ocean.
A genetic identification of one of these larvae is incredibly important, but it is only one step on the long journey toward describing the early ontogeny of all three Mola species—an endeavor that will require global collaboration, she continued.
This discovery is just another part of what marine biologists are doing every day, working tirelessly on behalf of all humankind to better understand our environment and preserve it for future generations. But this isn't only about science; if you live near or love aquatic life as we do, then knowing more about these creatures will make any trip out to sea that much more enjoyable!
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