The Aracanidae are a family of

bony fishes Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage ...

related to the

boxfish Ostraciidae is a family of squared, bony fish belonging to the order Tetraodontiformes, closely related to the pufferfishes and filefishes. Fish in the family are known variously as boxfishes, cofferfishes, cowfishes and trunkfishes. It contains ...

es. They are somewhat more primitive than the true boxfishes, but have a similar protective covering of thickened scale plates. They are found in the Indian Ocean and the west Pacific. Unlike the true boxfishes, they also inhabit deep waters, of over in depth.

Fossil species

The family is represented in the fossil record by the extinct genus ''

Proaracana ''Proaracana dubia'' is an extinct, prehistoric aracanid boxfish that lived during the Lutetian of middle Eocene Monte Bolca. See also * ''Eolactoria'' * Prehistoric fish The evolution of fish began about 530 million years ago during th ...

'' with the single species ''P. dubia'' known from the Middle

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

References

Marine fish families Tetraodontiformes {{Tetraodontiformes-stub