Confirmation of Mola mola (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae) and historical records of ocean sunfishes ( Mola sp.) in the coastal area of Uruguay

Mola mola is distributed from temperate to tropical oceans. The scarce reports on the occurrence of the species in the Uruguayan coast were based on incomplete morphological studies on collected specimens that could not properly discard the congeneric Mola ramsayi . This work constitutes confirmation of the occurrence of Mola mola in the coastal area of Uruguay, based on morphological characters of a specimen collected in April 2013. The fish occurred 100 m offshore in the Rio de la Plata estuary (at a depth of 5 m), in an area with a water temperature between 19 and 19.5°C. Morphometric data is provided. The specimen is preserved in the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Montevideo (Uruguay).