Some fish seem well on their way to becoming land animals. They can breathe in air better than in water.
Surgeon fish are so-called because of a sharp spine on the tail which can produce a cut like that made by a surgeon’s scalpel.
Parrot fish have beaks like parrots with which they scour algae from the coral reefs for food.
Goat fish have two growths under the mouth which look like the chin whiskers of goats.
Porcupine fish, whose skins are covered with sharp spines and which can fill their sac-like bodies with water or inflate them with air until they form a ball about twice their normal size. When the bodies are puffed up the sharp spines are erected to protect the creatures against their enemies. The inflation is a defense measure which takes place almost automatically when the fish is alarmed.
Trigger fish are creatures with rigid spines which “lock” automatically when the animals are in danger so that they cannot be bent. They can be unlocked, presumably by a nerve reflex, only by the fish themselves or by some scientist who knows the precise spinal process to touch.
Squirrel fish are brilliantly colored little creatures with large deep-brown eyes which look like the eyes of a squirrel.
Scorpion fish have bodies covered with venomous spines whose poison is reputed to be sometimes fatal even to man.
Flying half-beaks are fish with long, slender upper jaws and practically no lower jaws. They make long glides over the water and may represent an ancestral form of flying fish.
The elephant fish is so-called because of its very rough thick skin and apparent extreme clumsiness of its body, both characteristics of the elephant. Elephantichthys might be likened to a thick leather bag about eight inches long stuffed loosely with vital organs. It has a cartilaginous rather than a bony skeleton. It flattens out when laid on a flat surface out of water. It is almost mollusk likee in the softness of its body. Its skin is approximately a quarter of an inch long.