Hoodwinker ocean sunfish
Mola tecta Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Mola Tecta, image taken in Atacama, Chile
Explorasub · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) is a large and flat bony fish located in temperate waters. The Latin word "tecta" means hidden, and has been adopted as the name due to the fish blending among other species of sunfish for a prolonged time and only being discovered recently. Belonging to the family Molidae and genus Mola, the hoodwinker sunfish is closely related to the more widely known species: The ocean sunfish (Mola mola). Discovered on a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2015, it was the first new species of sunfish to be identified in 130 years. Mola tecta are mostly discovered in the temperate region of the Southern Hemisphere in the water near Australia, New Zealand, Southern Chile and Southern Africa. It was first described by Marianne Nyegaard, a marine scientist who studied ocean sunfish for her PhD.
Wikipedia contributors, Mola tecta; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:59:30.727401+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Mola tecta Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017
- Name authority
- Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017
- Common name
- Hoodwinker ocean sunfish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Tetraodontiformes
- Family
- Molidae
- Genus
- Mola
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderTetraodontiformes
- suborderTetraodontoidei
- familyMolidae Bonaparte, 1832
- genusMola Koelreuter, 1766
- speciesMola tecta Nyegaard, Sawai, Gemmell, Gillum, Loneragan, Yamanoue & Stewart, 2017
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Mola. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Common sunfishMola mola (Linnaeus, 1758) | MolidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mola alexandrini (Ranzani, 1839) | MolidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Nyegaard, M., Sawai, E., Gemmell, N., Gillum, J., Loneragan, N. R., Yamanoue, Y., & Stewart, A. L. (2017). Hiding in broad daylight: molecular and morphological data reveal a new ocean sunfish species (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) that has eluded recognition. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx040 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:43V8M. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.