punctatus, Platycephalus Cuvier [G.] in Cuvier & Valenciennes 1829:243 [Histoire naturelle des poissons v. 4; ref. 998] Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, eastern Indian Ocean; Vanicoro, Solomon Islands, western Pacific; Madagascar, western Indian Ocean. Syntypes: MNHN 0000-6836 (1), 0000-6851 (1) Trincomalee, 0000-6852 (1) Vanicoro. Type catalog: Blanc & Hureau 1968:45-46 [ref. 20738]. Based on specimens and a drawing by Commerson (Philibert Commerson, 1727-1773, French explorer and naturalist). •Synonym of Cociella crocodilus (Tilesius 1812) -- (Knapp 1986:483 [ref. 5683] as crocodila, Shao & Chen 1987:87 [ref. 8042] as crocodila). •Valid as Cociella punctata (Cuvier 1829) -- (Knapp 1996:23 [ref. 22010], Imamura 1996:203 [ref. 22700], Myers 1999:104 [ref. 23965], Knapp 1999:2393 [ref. 24807], Knapp in Randall & Lim 2000:607 [ref. 25122], Manilo & Bogorodsky 2003:S103 [ref. 27377], Kimura et al. in Kimura & Matsuura 2003:42 [ref. 27510], Heemstra & Heemstra 2004:149 [ref. 28072], Imamura 2009:74 [ref. 30434], Imamura & Yoshino 2009:312 [ref. 30527], Golani & Bogorodsky 2010:66 [ref. 35264], Fricke et al. 2011:381 [ref. 31242], Imamura 2011:397 [ref. 31625], Allen & Erdmann 2012:254 [ref. 31980], Kottelat 2013:317 [ref. 32989], Yoshida et al. 2013:88 [ref. 34464], Psomadakis et al. 2015:190 [ref. 34104], Fricke et al. 2018:139 [ref. 35805], Golani & Fricke 2018:58 [ref. 36273], Habib & Islam 2020:Supplementary table p. 29 [ref. 38321], Imamura & Aungtonya 2020:28 [ref. 38146], Psomadakis et al. 2020:373 [ref. 37272], Gloerfelt-Tarp & Kailola 2022:129 [ref. 41223], Knapp 2022:583 [ref. 39727], Moazzam & Osmany 2023:563 [ref. 40712], Allen & Erdmann 2024:271 [ref. 40796], Furuhashi et al. 2024:12 [ref. 41415]). Current status: Valid as Cociella punctata (Cuvier 1829). Platycephalidae. Distribution: Red Sea; Indo-West Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), East Africa, Gulf of Oman, Seychelles, Comoros and Madagascar east to Philippines and Vanuatu, north to Ryukyu Islands (Japan), south to New Caledonia. Habitat: marine.