Functional Dorsoventral Symmetry in Relation to Lift-Based Swimming in the Ocean Sunfish Mola mola

Abstract

The largest (up to 2 tons) and a globally distributed teleost—the ocean sunfish Mola mola—is commonly regarded as a planktonic fish because of its unusual shape including absence of caudal fin. This common view was recently questioned because the horizontal movements of the ocean sunfish tracked by acoustic telemetry were independent of ocean currents. However, direct information regarding their locomotor performance under natural conditions is still lacking. By using multi-sensor tags, we show that sunfish indeed swam continuously with frequent vertical movements at speeds of 0.4–0.7 m s ^–1, which is similar to the records of other large fishes such as salmons, marlins, and pelagic sharks. The acceleration data revealed that they stroked their dorsal and anal fins synchronously (dominant frequency, 0.3–0.6 Hz) to generate a lift-based thrust, as penguins do using two symmetrical flippers. Morphological studies of sunfish (mass, 2–959 kg) showed that the dorsal and anal fins had similar external (symmetrical shape and identical area) and internal (identical locomotory muscle mass) features; however, the muscle shape differed markedly. We conclude that ocean sunfish have functional dorsoventral symmetry with regards to the non-homologous dorsal and anal fins that act as a pair of vertical hydrofoils. Although sunfish lack a swimbladder, we found that they are neutrally buoyant independent of depth because of their subcutaneous gelatinous tissue that has low density and is incompressible. Efficient lift-based swimming in conjunction with neutral buoyancy enables sunfish to travel long distances both horizontally and vertically.