Mola Errata List May 2026

According to marine biologists, yes. The has become a tool for combating "taxonomic drift"—the phenomenon where public misunderstanding of an animal’s anatomy affects conservation efforts. For example, if the public believes the sunfish is a slow, vertical drifter (due to bad art), they may not support boat-speed regulations designed to protect it. In reality, Mola mola are powerful, laterally undulating swimmers.

The list has also expanded to cover the other sunfish species ( Mola alexandrini and Mola tecta , the Hoodwinker Sunfish). Each has its own errata profile. At first glance, the Mola Errata List seems pedantic. It is a catalog of mistakes on an animal that most people will never see in person. But to those who study the ocean sunfish, it is a love letter. It is an insistence that this weird, giant, parasite-ridden pancake of a fish deserves to be seen as it truly is—not as a cartoon, not as a skeleton, and not as a smiling mascot. Mola Errata List

The list’s unofficial motto is: "The sunfish is strange, but it is not that strange." To understand the necessity of the errata list, one must understand the victim: Mola mola . This fish is a biological anomaly. It can weigh over 2,200 kilograms (2.4 tons) and yet it has no caudal fin (tail fin) in the traditional sense. Instead, it has a pseudocaudal structure called a clavus . According to marine biologists, yes

In the world of digital art, natural history illustration, and scientific publishing, few documents wield as much quiet power as an errata list. For most, the term conjures images of dry academic footnotes or minor typographical corrections in a textbook. But for illustrators, marine biologists, and the dedicated fanbase of the Mola mola (the ocean sunfish), the Mola Errata List is something far more dramatic: a legendary, crowd-sourced manifesto that exposed a century of artistic and scientific misrepresentation. In reality, Mola mola are powerful, laterally undulating