The unusual discovery of a California marine creature that baffled scientists

The finding of a marine creature failed in California coasts puzzled the community of expert scientists in marine biology.

A member of University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) saw the carcbad of the animal on the beach of Sands, located in the nature reserve Coal Oil Point, which belongs to the university center.

The student contacted Jessica Nielsen, Specialist of the conservation of the reserve. Immediately, he moved to the square and what he saw was completely disoriented.

The large size of the specimen, 2.15 meters, and its strange morphology, seemed to indicate that it was a fish of the species Mola tecta. A theory that for own Nielsen was incomprehensible, because this type of marine animal lives in the waters of the southern hemisphereand in itself, seeing it in its natural environment is quite unusual.

Then experts from the international community They questioned the doctor's hypothesis.

The ichthyologist Ralph Foster of the South Australian Museum initially refused to identify the fish like a copy of Mola Ecta. He argued that some of the distinctive features of the moonfish were not visible in the pictures that he had seen.

Marianne Nyeggard, who discovered the species in 2017, contacted specialists from the California Murdoch University, Australia

He gave them specific instructions on what they should photograph and What tissue samples They should take.

After taking the snapshots and badyzing the collected genetic samples, the scientists agreed that there was no doubt that the California animal was a moon fish.

"This specimen has been positively identified as a mola tecta, the sunfish. the first specimen of this species observed in the northern hemisphere"Coal Oil Point Reserve confirmed on its Facebook page.

For over three centuries, the Mola tecta fish has inhabited the temperate waters of the southern hemisphere, without the scientific community knowing its existence.

It was only in 2015 that he appeared in the north island of New Zealand, the first ever seen of "moonfish".

The animal, an adult male one meter long, was caught by trawls at a depth of 78 meters on December 25, 2015.

The team of ichthyologists – fish experts – who evaluated this unusual sailor being decided to call him Mola tecta for reference at the end coming from Latin "tectus" What does mean "disguised" or "hidden".

Characterized by a flat and semi-oval body, the species can reach two and a half meters long total They usually inhabit the coastal waters of the south-east of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Chilethat's why its discovery in the United States is, as the Coal Oil Point reserve has called it, a "mystery".