''Chilomycterus mauretanicus'', commonly known as the Guinean burrfish, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of burrfish in the family Diodontidae. It is native to the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, where it ranges from the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

, as well as possibly

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. It is typically seen in environments at depths of less than 100 m (328 ft) with a substrate composed primarily of sand or mud. The species reaches 25 cm (9.8 inches) in

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

and is known to feed on hard-shelled

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s such as

mollusks Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The num ...

. Although the toxicity of the species has not been confirmed, it is believed to be

poisonous A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

to humans. As such, it is not a target for commercial fisheries, and sale of the species is reportedly banned in some countries. Although ''Chilomycterus mauretanicus'' has historically been classified as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the closely related ''

Chilomycterus spinosus ''Chilomycterus spinosus'', sometimes known as the brown burrfish, is a species of burrfish in the family Diodontidae. It is native to the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, where it ranges from Venezuela to Argentina, including the island of Trinida ...

'', it is now considered by multiple sources to constitute a distinct and valid species.

References

Fish described in 1954 mauretanicus Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fauna of the Canary Islands Fish of Angola {{tetraodontiformes-stub