plectognath

Definitions of plectognath

1. noun

   tropical marine fishes having the teeth fused into a beak and thick skin covered with bony plates or spines
   synonyms: plectognath fish

   types:

   triggerfish

   any of numerous compressed deep-bodied tropical fishes with sandpapery skin and erectile spines in the first dorsal fin

   filefish

   narrow flattened warm-water fishes with leathery skin and a long file-like dorsal spine

   boxfish, trunkfish

   any of numerous small tropical fishes having body and head encased in bony plates

   blowfish, globefish, puffer, pufferfish

   any of numerous marine fishes whose elongated spiny body can inflate itself with water or air to form a globe; several species contain a potent nerve poison; closely related to spiny puffers

   spiny puffer

   puffers having rigid or erectile spines

   headfish, mola, ocean sunfish, sunfish

   among the largest bony fish; pelagic fish having an oval compressed body with high dorsal and anal fins and caudal fin reduced to a rudder-like lobe; worldwide in warm waters

   Balistes vetula, Bessy cerca, oldwench, oldwife, queen triggerfish

   tropical Atlantic fish

   leatherfish, leatherjacket

   any of several brightly colored tropical filefishes

   Lactophrys quadricornis, cowfish

   trunkfish having hornlike spines over the eyes

   Diodon hystrix, porcupine fish, porcupinefish

   spines become erect when the body is inflated; worldwide in warm waters

   Diodon holocanthus, balloonfish

   similar to but smaller than porcupinefish

   burrfish

   any of several fishes having rigid flattened spines

   Mola lanceolata, sharptail mola

   caudal fin has a central projection

   type of:

   acanthopterygian, spiny-finned fish

   a teleost fish with fins that are supported by sharp inflexible rays