0 a type of fish, usually found in warm or tropical seas, that can make itself larger by filling its stomach with water or air:
Species studied include vertebrates with no evidence of imprinting, such as chicken and pufferfish, as well as a number of mammalian species including human, mouse, chimp and dog.
It is also present in the bodies of animals such as pufferfish, where it is responsible for the production of the potent neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin.
Filefish are closely related to the triggerfish, pufferfish and trunkfish.
In life, it would have resembled a paunchy triggerfish or a pufferfish with an elongated, downturned face.
Body shape and the arrangement of the fins is highly variable, covering such seemingly un-fishlike forms as seahorses, pufferfish, anglerfish, and gulpers.
In spite of its small size, this fish is known to make unprovoked attacks on humans, the inspiration for the common name ferocious pufferfish.
The pufferfish itself is not susceptible to the poison because of a mutation in the protein sequence of its cells' sodium channel.
Some forms of sushi, notably those containing pufferfish fugu and some kinds of shellfish, can cause severe poisoning if not prepared properly.
