Chilomycterus

Burrfishes Temporal range: Early Miocene–present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
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
AtingaLe Danois, 1954 ChilomyctereBibron, 1855 CyanichthysKaup, 1855 LyosphaeraEvermann & Kendall, 1898 (uncertainly a synonym of this genus)

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 5 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]

• †Chilomycteruscircumflexus (Leriche, 1942) (Middle to Late Miocene of Cuba and Florida & North Carolina, US) (= Diodon circumflexusLeriche, 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 . ^{[5] [6]}

References

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2023). "Chilomycterus mauretanicus". FishBase.
4. 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. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315382 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   11801553 . PMID   39913453.
5. 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.
6. 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.