This prehistoric-looking creature can indeed swim like a fish.

I still remember the first time I saw a sunfish—an otherworldly appearing creature that can grow up to a weight of 2 tons.  It was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (later used as one of the locations for a Star Trek movie), and the deep blue water and the startlingly primitive appearance of the fish left me with the impression I was peering into another world.  I guess I was.  That’s all beside the point, however.  The point right now is that scientists couldn’t figure out how the sunfish could move vertically and horizontally—their conformation made it difficult to understand why they didn’t just drift with the current.  Researchers at the Ocean Research Institute and the National Institute of Polar Research, both in Japan, have figured it out.  Part of their research included weighing caught sunfish on a platform scale.

For further information visit www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

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