The fish was found dead in December last year.
Scientists discovered a giant newt fish in the Portuguese Azores -moon. It became the heaviest bony fish ever discovered, according to Live science.
The giant fish was found back in December 2021, dead and floating off the coast of the island, and Fayal in the Azores – Portuguese group of islands to the north of the Atlantic Ocean. According to a statement from the Atlantic Naturalist Association, local authorities picked up the carcass and took it back to port so it could be properly examined.
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The results of the autopsy were published on October 11 in the Journal of Fish Biology. The width of the moon fish was 3.6 meters, and the length was 3.5 meters. The weight of the fish was 2744 kilograms or about three tons. The scientists also examined the contents of the creature's stomach and took an analysis of its DNA.
Lead author of the study José Nuno Gomez-Pereira said that the dead fish was indeed a “majestic specimen”. He added that the photos don't do justice to how massive it looked in the water.
The title of heaviest bony fish was previously held by another moonfish caught off the coast of Japan in 1996. It weighed about 2,300 kilograms.
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