Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1805
Primary Source Reference:
Guide to the Philadelphia Museum (Philadelphia, 1805), p. 5
Additional Source Text:
"Remarkable for having neither flesh nor bones, being wholly cartilaginous, and equally extraordinary for its bulk and form, more resembling the head of an immense fish than an entire one."
Notes:
United States Gazette (Philadelphia), 10 Sep 1817, carried an account from the Boston Palladium of 5 Sep noting that a sunfish "caught in this harbour ten or fifteen years ago; and that the skin of one which weighed 300lb. is preserved in Peale's Museum, Philadelphia."
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Current Common Name:
Ocean sunfish
Current Scientific Name
Mola mola
