plectognath, plectognath fish

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

• 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
• puffer, blowfish, globefish — 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
• ocean sunfish, sunfish, mola, headfish — 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

• spiny-finned fish, acanthopterygian — a teleost fish with fins that are supported by sharp inflexible rays

• Plectognathi, order Plectognathi, order Tetraodontiformes — boxfishes; filefishes; globefishes; ocean sunfishes; triggerfishes; puffers