| Burrfishes Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Chilomycterus schoepfii | |
| |
| Chilomycterus antillarum | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Tetraodontiformes |
| Family: | Diodontidae |
| Genus: | Chilomycterus Brisout de Barneville, 1846 |
| Type species | |
| Diodon atringa Brisout de Barneville, 1846
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Atinga Le Danois, 1954 | |
Chilomycterus is a genus of diodontid tetraodontiform fishes commonly called "burrfish".
Distribution
A majority of Chilomycterus species are found in the Atlantic Ocean, and primarily in the western Atlantic. Only one species, C. reticulatus, is also found in the Indo-Pacific region. The western Atlantic appears to have always been a region of diversity for the genus, as a majority of fossil species have been found there. Only a single indeterminate fossil assigned to this genus is known from the Pacific coast of Panama.1
Species
There are currently five recognized species in this genus:2
- Chilomycterus antennatus (G. Cuvier, 1816) (bridled burrfish)
- Chilomycterus antillarum D. S. Jordan & Rutter, 1897 (web burrfish)
- Chilomycterus mauretanicus (Y. Le Danois, 1954) (Guinean burrfish)3
- Chilomycterus reticulatus (Linnaeus, 1758) (spotfin burrfish)
- Chilomycterus schoepfii (Walbaum, 1792) (striped burrfish)
- Chilomycterus spinosus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Fossil species
The following fossil species are known:1
- †Chilomycterus circumflexus (Leriche, 1942) (Middle to Late Miocene of Cuba and Florida & North Carolina, US) (=Diodon circumflexus Leriche, 1942)
- †Chilomycterus dzonotensis Cantalice et al., 2025 (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Mexico)4
- †Chilomycterus exspectatus Aguilera et al, 2017 (Late Miocene of Panama)1
- †Chilomycterus ferreirai (Santos & Travassos 1960) (Early Miocene of Brazil & Venezuela)
- †Chilomycterus gatunensis (Toula, 1909) (Late Miocene of Panama)
- †Chilomycterus kugleri (Casier, 1958) (Late Miocene of Trinidad)
- †Chilomycterus tyleri Aguilera et al, 2017 (Late Miocene of Panama)1
- †Chilomycterus vetus (Leidy, 1877) (Middle Miocene of Trinidad, Late Miocene of Florida, US)
The former species C. acanthodes from the Miocene of Italy is now placed in Oligodiodon.56
References
References
- Aguilera, Orangel; Silva, Guilherme Oliveira Andrade; Lopes, Ricardo Tadeu; Machado, Alessandra Silveira; Santos, Thaís Maria dos; Marques, Gabriela; Bertucci, Thayse; Aguiar, Thayanne; Carrillo-Briceño, Jorge; Rodriguez, Felix; Jaramillo, Carlos (2017-07-26). "Neogene Proto-Caribbean porcupinefishes (Diodontidae)". PLOS ONE. 12 (7) e0181670. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1281670A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0181670. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5528887. PMID 28746370.
- Matsuura, K. (2014): Taxonomy and systematics of tetraodontiform fishes: a review focusing primarily on progress in the period from 1980 to 2014. Ichthyological Research, 62 (1): 72-113.
- Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2023). "Chilomycterus mauretanicus". FishBase.
- Cantalice, Kleyton M.; Salgado-Garrido, Hugo E.; Sosa-Rodríguez, Erick; Vilchis-Zapata, Kay; González-Barba, Gerardo; Project, on behalf of the Underwater Archaeological Atlas (2025-02-06). "Underwater paleontology inside cenotes reveals the Miocene-Pliocene fish diversity in the Yucatan Peninsula, southeast Mexico". PLOS ONE. 20 (2) e0315382. Bibcode:2025PLoSO..2015382C. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0315382. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 11801553. PMID 39913453.
- Tyler, J. C.; Bannikov, A. F. (2009-11-01). "Phylogenetic implications of the some cranial features of the porcupine pufferfish Pshekhadiodon (Tetraodontiformes, Diodontidae) from the Eocene of the Northern Caucasus". Journal of Ichthyology. 49 (9): 703–709. Bibcode:2009JIch...49..703T. doi:10.1134/S003294520909001X. ISSN 1555-6425.
- Gallo, Valéria; Carvalho, Marise Sardenberg Salgado de; Souto, Alex Alves (2009-06-01). "A possible occurrence of Diodontidae (Teleostei, Tetraodontiformes) in the Upper Cretaceous of the Paraíba Basin, northeastern Brazil". Cretaceous Research. 30 (3): 599–604. Bibcode:2009CrRes..30..599G. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2008.12.001. ISSN 0195-6671.