Ranzania laevis: taxon details and analytics

Domain
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Tetraodontiformes
Family
Molidae
Genus
Ranzania
Species
Ranzania laevis
Scientific Name
Ranzania laevis

Summary description from Wikipedia:

Slender sunfish

The slender sunfish (Ranzania laevis) is a mola of the family Molidae, the only extant member of the genus Ranzania, found globally in tropical and temperate seas. Its length is up to 1 m (3.3 ft). Several stranding and mass stranding events have occurred on beaches near Albany, Western Australia.

The first South Australian specimen was found at Aldinga in 1944. A cast was made from it, and a replica was made, painted and prepared for display at the South Australian museum that year. Several other individuals have stranded in South Australia at Port Willunga, Netley and West Beach with the latter successfully returned live to deeper water.

In contrast to its much larger relatives in the family Molidae, who are very slow-moving and mostly feed upon jellyfish, salps, and small fish and crustaceans, the slender sunfish is known to mainly feed upon squid, particularly of the family Ommastrephidae, which are known for being very fast-moving, displaying evidence that the slender sunfish itself is a faster-moving and agile predator of squid.

Several other fossil species of Ranzania are known:

  • Ranzania grahami Weems, 1985 - Middle Miocene (Langhian/Serravallian) of Virginia, USA
  • Ranzania ogaii Uyeno & Sakamoto, 1994 - Middle Miocene (Langhian) of Saitama, Japan
  • Ranzania tenneyorum Weems, 1985 - Early Miocene (Burdigalian) of Virginia, USA
  • Ranzania zappai Carnevale, 2007 - Middle Miocene (Serravallian) of Italy (named for Frank Zappa)

In addition, a partial fossil of an indeterminate Ranzania is known from the latest Miocene (Messinian) of Algeria. An indeterminate Early Miocene-aged molid, known from a single fossil beak from the Gaiman Formation of Chubut, Argentina, may also be that of Ranzania; this fossil is notable for representing the southernmost record of fossil Tetraodontiformes. During the warmer climate of the Miocene, the now-frigid coast of Chubut may have been more hospitable for pelagic molids like Ranzania.

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Ranzania laevis in languages:

Afrikaans
Rompvis
Arabic
سمكة الشمس النحيلة
Arabic
مولا نحيلة
Chinese
斑點長翻車魨
Czech
měsíčník protáhlý
English
Slender Sunfish
English
Truncated Sunfish
English
Ranzania
English
Oblong Sunfish
English
Trunkfish
English
Short Sunfish
English
Slender Mola
English
Dwarf sunfish
French
Poisson-lune tronqué
Japanese
クサビフグ
Portuguese
Peixe-lua-comprido
Portuguese
Peixe-roda
Russian
Овальная луна-рыба

Images from inaturalist.org observations:

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Ranzania laevis
©Cecile Roux, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©hylacola, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©hylacola, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©hylacola, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©hylacola, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Marian Oliver, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Dagmar Gleiss, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Marian Oliver, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Ralph Foster, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Ralph Foster, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Ralph Foster, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Ralph Foster, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Ralph Foster, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Carl Hughes, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Francisco Liguori, some rights reserved (CC0)
Ranzania laevis
©Cecile Roux, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Cecile Roux, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Cecile Roux, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Cecile Roux, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Kiloueka, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)
Ranzania laevis
©Kiloueka, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

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