Order Summary for Tetraodontiformes

  Main Ref
:
  Order
:
Tetraodontiformes puffers and filefishes
  Class
:
Teleostei
  Sister Order
:
Pleuronectiformes 15 M years
  Ref.
:
  First Fossil Record
:
late Tertiary
  Occurs in
:
Marine
Fresh
Brackish
  Remark
:
No parietals, nasals, or infraorbitals, and usually no lower ribs; posttemporal, if present, simple and fused with pterotic of skull; hyomandibular and palatine firmly attached with premaxilla; scales usually modified as spines, shields, or plates; lateral line present or absent, sometimes multiple; swim bladder present except in molids; 16-30 vertebrae.
  Class etymology
:
Greek aktis = ray, thunderbolt, beam + Greek pterygion, diminutive of pteryx = wing, fin. Ref. 45335.
  Order etymology
:
Greek, tetra = four + Greek, odous = teeth + Latin, forma = shape (Ref. 45335).
  Families
:

Ref.
[ e.g. 9948]                       
Glossary
                    [ e.g. cephalopods]

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