Diodon
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| Porcupinefishes Fossil range: Early Eocene to Present[1] |
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Members of the diodontidae, species of the genus diodon are usually known as porcupinefishes or balloonfishes.
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[edit] Distinguishing features
Fish of the genus diodon have;
- two-rooted, moveable spines (actually modified scales) distributed over their bodies.
- beak-like jaws, used to crush their hard-shelled prey (crustaceans and molluscs).[2]
They differ from the swelltoads and burrfishes (genus Cyclichthys and Chilomycterus), which have fixed, rigid spines.
[edit] Defense mechanisms
- Like pufferfishes they can inflate themselves, making their spines stand perpendicular to the skin. When inflated they pose a major difficulty to their predators: a large diodon fully inflated can choke a shark to death.
- They may be poisonous, through the accumulation of tetrodotoxin or ciguatera.[2]
[edit] Species
- Pelagic porcupinefish, Diodon eydouxii (Brisout de Barneville, 1846)
- Long-spine porcupinefish, Diodon holocanthus (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Spot-fin porcupinefish, Diodon hystrix (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Black-blotched porcupinefish, Diodon liturosus (Shaw, 1804)
- Slender-spined porcupine fish, Diodon nicthemerus (Cuvier, 1818)
[edit] References
- ^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: p.560.
- ^ a b Lieske, E. and Myers, R.F. (2004) Coral reef guide; Red Sea London, HarperCollins ISBN 0-00-715986-2
