Ostraciidae

Ostraciidae or Ostraciontidae 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 about 23 extant species in 6 extant genera.

==Taxonomy== Ostraciidae was first proposed as a family in 1810 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. In the past this grouping was regarded as a subfamily, the Ostraciinae, along with the subfamily Aracaninae, of a wider Ostraciidae. However, recent phylogenetic studies have concluded that the families Aracanidae and Ostraciidae are valid families but that they are part of the same clade, the suborder Ostracioidei. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this clade as the suborder Ostracioidea within the order Tetraodontiformes.