We have found that the bulge of the large , nearby Sb galaxy NGC 7331 rotates retrograde to its disk .
Analysis of spectra in the region of the near-IR Ca II triplet along the major axis shows that , in the radial range between 5 ^ { \prime \prime } and \sim 20 ^ { \prime \prime } , the line of sight velocity distribution of the absorption lines is has two distinct peaks , and can be decomposed into a fast-rotating component with v/ \sigma > 3 , and a slower rotating , retrograde component with v/ \sigma \sim 1 – 1.5 .
The radial surface brightness profile of the counter-rotating component follows that of the bulge , obtained from a 2-dimensional bulge-disk decomposition of a near-infrared K -band image , while the fast rotating component follows the disk .
At the radius where the disk starts to dominate the isophotes change from being considerably boxy to very disky .

Although a number of spiral galaxies have been found that contain cold , couterrotating disk , this is the first galaxy known to have a boxy , probably triaxial , fairly warm , counter-rotating component , which is dominating in the central regions .
If it is a bar seen end-on , this bar has to be thicker than the disk .
We find that NGC 7331 , even though it is a fairly early-type spiral , does not have a conventional , co-rotating bulge .
The fact that the inner component is retrograde makes us believe that it was formed from infalling material , in either stellar or gaseous form ( e.g .
Balcells & Quinn 1990 ) .
Another possibility however is that the structure has been there since the formation of the galaxy .
In this case it will be a challenge to explain the large change in orientation of the angular momentum when going outward radially .