Species: Chilomycterus spinosus spinosus, Brown burrfish

Chilomycterus spinosus spinosus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Brown burrfish

Body rotund, can be inflated; head wide and blunt; eyes large; any tentacle over eye is smaller than eye; nasal organ a short, hollow tentacle with 2 openings; teeth fused into a strong, parrot-like beak with two plates that lack a front groove, large, opens widely at front; gill opening a vertical slit before pectoral base; pectorals large; fins without spines; tail fin with 9 (9-10) rays; no pelvic fins; body and head covered with relatively few, short (< eye), fixed, 3-rooted spines that are triangular and flattened in cross-section, and, in some cases reduced to plates under skin; no spines wholly on tail base.