Georgia Arnold

November 15th, 2015

Science/English

Northern Pufferfish

The northern pufferfish, or Sphoeroides maculatus is a medium size yellow brown colored fish. It has bilateral symmetry which means it is only symmetrical if divided down its center point. They are in the eukaryote domain, animalia kingdom, chordata phylum, actinoperygii class, tetraodontiformes order, tetraodontidae family, Sphoeroides genus, and maculatus species. They usually live along the Atlantic coastline and they are bottom dwellers. A functional adaptation is that they puff up when threatened. A fun fact about the northern pufferfish is that they can puff up to 3 times its size. They prey on smaller fish. Sharks are its only predators due to the fact that it can puff up when threatened. They are ectothermic heterotrophs which means they rely on other organisms for food and their body temperature changes depending on the temperature around them.

I got my information from http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/northern_puffer http://www.onthewater.com/chicken-sea/ and also http://oysterbaytackle.com/index.php/drifting-easy/298-northern-puffers-blowfish.html