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Although it seems unlikely, these fishes are all related in the Order Tetraodontiformes. Common characteristics include:
teeth fused into horny beaks
tough leathery skin
swimming primarily with dorsal and anal fins rather than tail
pelvic fins lacking
They are all also possessed of rather higher intelligence than most fishes.
Range: The Gray Triggerfish is found on both the eastern and western Atlantic coasts. Along the Atlantic coast of North America, it ranges from Nova Scotia and Bermuda to Argentina, including a presence in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Most of the approximately 40 other species in the Balistes family can be found in tropical seas worldwide.
Size: to 10 ft long, 11 ft tall, 4400 lbs, but usually 4-5 ft long
Habitat: Open ocean, usually basking near surface. This giant, slow-moving creature flaps along at the surface, propelled by its oar-like dorsal and anal fins and steering with the stump of its tail.
Puffers are highly intelligent, traveling in schools, and hunting cooperatively. They prey on anything they can dismember with their powerful parrot-like beaks, including other fishes and crabs. The body is short, fat, and stiff, with a disproportionately large head.
"Higher animals" is a catch-all term for vertebrates other than fish. This is rather self-congratulatory, since the so-called "lower animals" - fishes and invertebrates - are actually the dominant species on the planet, both in numbers and diversity! The four classes of higher animals are:
Amphibians - class Amphibia
Reptiles - class Reptilia
Birds - class Aves
Mammals - class Mammalia
Of these, amphibians are absent from marine environments ( with one or two exceptions. )