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Behold: Pufferfish Bones (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are you serious? They really have what amounts to an exoskeleton? Or maybe it's more accurate to call it a whole-body rib cage?

Just searched and found this fun article. Not really a skeleton but a collection of really stiff hairs or feathers (loosely: the genes are the same ones responsible for "other skin appendages" in vertebrates).

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Looks like it's fake. This research paper shows a more normal skeleton, though they do apparently lack ribs and a pelvis.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I think it’s just inaccurately labeled as a skeleton. These appear to be skin spikes. https://www.cell.com/iscience/pdf/S2589-0042(19)30185-3.pdf

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting. That page says "few vertebrae", but the image makes it look to me like a full set.

On the other hand, if I found an animal with no ribs and pelvis and only the rudimentary limbs typically found in fish, I'd tend to say that the skeleton was missing. Or at least, ahem, skeletal.

Thanks. My first impression was that there was some funny business, but then I found what I thought was a decent article.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you're saying all my skin tags are just puffer fish thorns?!

Amazing.....

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do they scare away predators also?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Only if you inflate yourself.