Photo of the Day 167

Striped Boxfish, Tukangbesi Islands, Indonesia, 2005

Photograph by Tim Laman

A dizzying array of dots and squiggles decorates a striped boxfish (Ostracion solorensis) gliding by a coral reef near Indonesia's Tukangbesi Islands. Boxfish, also known as trunkfish or cowfish, are known for their distinctive boxy profiles and for the bonelike, six-sided plates that cover much of their bodies and protect them from predators.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: Why Are Coral Reefs So Colorful?" May 2005, National Geographic magazine)