The Common Error: Depicting the Mola mola with a large, crescent-shaped tail fin (like a tuna or a mackerel). Why It Happens: Early naturalists, including some 18th-century Dutch painters, assumed the fish’s stubby back end was a result of damage, so they "restored" a forked tail. The Correction (Per the Errata List): The sunfish has no tail. Instead, it has a clavus—a scalloped, rudder-like structure formed by the fusion of dorsal and anal fin rays. It looks less like a fin and more like a flattened, fringed baseball mitt. If your illustration has a distinct, separate lobe for a tail, you have failed the Mola Errata List.
The Common Error: Giving the sunfish a cute, upturned, parrot-like beak or a perpetual, friendly smile. Why It Happens: The sunfish’s mouth is small and terminal (at the front of the head), but when preserved specimens dry out, the jaw contracts and curls upward, creating a "grin." The Correction: The Mola mola does not smile. Its mouth is a permanent, small, oval-shaped hole. In live specimens, the mouth appears downturned or strictly neutral. The Errata List is famously brutal on this point: "A smiling sunfish is a dead sunfish. Draw the grim reality."
Below are the most cited corrections from the Mola Errata List, translated for the layperson and the professional artist alike. Mola Errata List
Traditional molas often depict biblical scenes (Noah’s Ark, Adam & Eve). However, it is taboo to depict the face of God or a bleeding Christ. A mola showing a Christ figure with blood is immediately flagged on the Cultural Errata List and cannot be used for religious ceremonies. It becomes a strictly commercial item.
The Common Error: Drawing the sunfish vertically, with its dorsal fin pointed straight up like a sail and its anal fin pointing straight down, making it look like a living kite. Why It Happens: Most museum skeletons mount the sunfish vertically because it saves space. Artists sketch the skeleton without observing a live fish. The Correction: While sunfish do swim vertically when basking or signaling, their resting swimming posture is lateral (side-to-side). More importantly, the dorsal and anal fins are symmetrical and undulate in unison. The Errata List emphasizes: The sunfish is not a sailboat. Its fins are paddles, not flags. The Common Error: Depicting the Mola mola with
Understanding the Errata List allows you to price molas accurately. Here is a quick dealer’s guide based on errata severity:
The list does not have a single author. It was a collaborative "rage-compilation" on the now-defunct Gulf of Maine Science Illustration Forum around 2012. The primary contributor was a biological illustrator known only by the handle Clavus_Zero, who posted a 5,000-word breakdown titled "Every Sunfish You Have Ever Drawn is Wrong." Instead, it has a clavus —a scalloped, rudder-like
Clavus_Zero compared 75 images of Mola mola from Wikipedia, stock photo sites, and encyclopedias. They found that 92% contained at least one major anatomical error. The post went viral within niche natural history circles, and the term Mola Errata List was born. It has since been maintained by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) as an unofficial reference for science illustrators.