The Sunfish is a Unique Design
by Owen Borville
July 15, 2020
Biology
The sunfish is the world's largest bony fish. The German word for sunfish means "swimming head" and the Polish name for sunfish means "head alone", inspired by the unique appearance. The largest variety of sunfish is the mola mola, named after the latin word for millstone, and is a uniquely designed and unusual marine animal. The sunfish is found throughout the world's ocean basins off of all continents except Antarctica. Sunfish are often mistaken for sharks because of their dorsal fin.
The unique and unusual features and behaviors of the sunfish have evolutionist scientists questioning the origin of this fish, as creationists proclaim a uniquely designed creature from an Intelligent Designer. Evolutionists claim that the sunfish is related to the bass, but the unique features of the sunfish make it a unique variety or kind produced from a special creation event. Evolutionists also claim that sunfish ancestors lost their tail, to be replaced by its short anal fin, but cannot explain this process. Sunfish use their dorsal and anal fins to swim in the water at speeds of 2 miles per hour.
Unique Design and Behavior of the Sunfish
The sunfish is extremely heavy, weighing an average of 2,000 pounds but can be up to 5,000 pounds while extending an average of 6 feet and up to 10 feet long in length. The teeth of the sunfish are fused together in two plates like a beak and evolutionists would have to explain the origin of this anatomy. The sunfish cannot close its mouth because its teeth are fused together. The skin is up to three inches thick, is mucus-covered, and is rough like sandpaper.
The sunfish spends many hours of the day near the water surface sunbathing, a unusual behavior, to warm their bodies from the cold, deep waters. Sunfish can dive up to 2,600 feet into the cold waters, but normally stay at much shallower depths from the water surface. Sunfish also sunbathe near the surface to let birds eat parasites off of their bodies, a unique symbiotic relationship. In addition, other fishes eat the parasites on the sunfish's body. Sunfish have also been observed jumping from the water surface up to 10 feet and landing in the water in an attempt to shake off the parasites.
Sunfish are predators, feeding on marine organisms including jellyfish, small fish, and zooplankton, in addition to squid, sponges, serpent star bits, fish larvae, eel grass, and crustaceans.
The sunfish lays more eggs than any other animal, up to 300 million at one time, each of which is very tiny (1.3 mm in diameter). Young sunfish look different from their adult counterparts, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin, and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.
Mola sunfishes can color change from light to dark when threatened by predators. The size of sunfishes protects them from most predators, but sea lions have been known to threaten sunfishes, along with killer whales, sharks, in addition to parasites on their bodies.
Some scientists classify sunfish with plankton despite its massive size, because the sunfish seems to drift with the current rather than swim. However, other scientists have done research that indicate that sunfish can swim independent of the current like most fish.
by Owen Borville
July 15, 2020
Biology
The sunfish is the world's largest bony fish. The German word for sunfish means "swimming head" and the Polish name for sunfish means "head alone", inspired by the unique appearance. The largest variety of sunfish is the mola mola, named after the latin word for millstone, and is a uniquely designed and unusual marine animal. The sunfish is found throughout the world's ocean basins off of all continents except Antarctica. Sunfish are often mistaken for sharks because of their dorsal fin.
The unique and unusual features and behaviors of the sunfish have evolutionist scientists questioning the origin of this fish, as creationists proclaim a uniquely designed creature from an Intelligent Designer. Evolutionists claim that the sunfish is related to the bass, but the unique features of the sunfish make it a unique variety or kind produced from a special creation event. Evolutionists also claim that sunfish ancestors lost their tail, to be replaced by its short anal fin, but cannot explain this process. Sunfish use their dorsal and anal fins to swim in the water at speeds of 2 miles per hour.
Unique Design and Behavior of the Sunfish
The sunfish is extremely heavy, weighing an average of 2,000 pounds but can be up to 5,000 pounds while extending an average of 6 feet and up to 10 feet long in length. The teeth of the sunfish are fused together in two plates like a beak and evolutionists would have to explain the origin of this anatomy. The sunfish cannot close its mouth because its teeth are fused together. The skin is up to three inches thick, is mucus-covered, and is rough like sandpaper.
The sunfish spends many hours of the day near the water surface sunbathing, a unusual behavior, to warm their bodies from the cold, deep waters. Sunfish can dive up to 2,600 feet into the cold waters, but normally stay at much shallower depths from the water surface. Sunfish also sunbathe near the surface to let birds eat parasites off of their bodies, a unique symbiotic relationship. In addition, other fishes eat the parasites on the sunfish's body. Sunfish have also been observed jumping from the water surface up to 10 feet and landing in the water in an attempt to shake off the parasites.
Sunfish are predators, feeding on marine organisms including jellyfish, small fish, and zooplankton, in addition to squid, sponges, serpent star bits, fish larvae, eel grass, and crustaceans.
The sunfish lays more eggs than any other animal, up to 300 million at one time, each of which is very tiny (1.3 mm in diameter). Young sunfish look different from their adult counterparts, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin, and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.
Mola sunfishes can color change from light to dark when threatened by predators. The size of sunfishes protects them from most predators, but sea lions have been known to threaten sunfishes, along with killer whales, sharks, in addition to parasites on their bodies.
Some scientists classify sunfish with plankton despite its massive size, because the sunfish seems to drift with the current rather than swim. However, other scientists have done research that indicate that sunfish can swim independent of the current like most fish.
