Paracanthostracion is a monospecific genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Ostraciidae, the boxfishes.

[3] This taxon is classified within the family Ostraciidae in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World, which it places in the suborder Ostracioidea within the order Tetraodontiformes.

[4] Paracanthostracion prefixes para-, meaning "close to", to the genus name Acanthostracion from which it differs in the shape of its carapace and the distribution of its spines.

The specific name honours Phillipps's colleage at the Dominion Museum in Wellington, the curator of technology and taxidermist Charles John Lindsay.

[5] Paraacanthostracion is characterised by having the anterior profile of the head being oblique aith the diameter of its eye being only slightly less than the length of the snout.