Why does blowfish blow up

Dowd explained that the muscles and bones of the head involved in these kinds of behaviors later changed to allow the animal to inflate. Even if a predator is big enough to eat a puffer fish whole, it will be in for a big surprise. Some pufferfish also have another potent way to defend themselves: tetrodotoxin. Search for:. Videos Activities Podcasts. Hasbro Gaming and all related terms are trademarks of Hasbro.

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Skip to main content. Show More. Because puffers have another, more potent defense up their sleeves. Their bodies are laced with a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin. It's up to 1, times more poisonous than cyanide.

So poisonous that one puffer fish can kill 30 adult humans. So poisonous that puffers are reportedly the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world, which is why it's also surprising that us humans?

We actually eat them. That's right. In Japan, puffer fish is actually a delicacy called fugu, which only trained chefs can prepare. And considering that these fish are basically spike balls filled with poison and we're still serving them in restaurants, they must be seriously delicious. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.

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