The Congo puffer or potato puffer (Tetraodon miurus) is a freshwater pufferfish found in areas of the Congo River in Africa, including rapids. The T.miurus populations in the wild are still healthy in suitable habitats and it is considered 'Least Concern' by the IUCN Tetraodon miurus can grow to an approximate length of 15 cm. They are inactive fishes, spending most of their time buried in sand or other substrate, with the ability to adapt their colouration to hide from potential prey. However, many colour variations are seen within the species, ranging from black to sandy to bright red. It will not change to blue, though, but if in a dark substrate will generally become darker in color. Like all members of the genus Tetraodon, the Congo puffer is capable of inflating itself with water or air when stressed or otherwise frightened. It also has a deadly toxin like most species.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Tetraodon miurus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens18
BINs3
Marker genes10
eDNA detections5
Countries2
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P652 bp consensus9 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 97% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 19 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.2%
Haplotypes4
BINs3
Most divergent pair2.3%
AfricaOther
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5PCOXIIICYTBND1ND2ND3ND4ND4LND5-0ND6
animal barcodemitochondrial
Organelle genome
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
▸ Tap any coloured segment — or a gene chip — to see what it is
ND1ND2COX1cytochrome c oxidase subunit IIATP8ATP6COX3ND3ND4LND4ND5ND6CYTBs-rRNAl-rRNA
◖ violet arc = the COI-5P barcode — the ~650 bp read used to ID this species
Pick a coloured segment on the ring — or a gene chip — to read what that gene does.
protein-codingrRNAtRNA
07Deep time~9.04 Ma lineage
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin9.04 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type157 records
Wild obs. + sensor3
Museum / vouchered154
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO216 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy0% within 1 km
>10 km 1
1 georeferenced · 2 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor3
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy100% within 1 km
≤1 km 2
2 georeferenced · 152 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence154
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions6 of 11 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
FishBaselocation not on record
69
Royal Museum for Central Africalocation not on record
68
Montgomery, US
3
SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record
3
Stockholm, SE
2
South Kensington, GB
2
CASlocation not on record
1
Cambridge, US
1
Chicago, US
1
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversitylocation not on record
1
Frankfurt am Main
1
11 institutions · 152 of 154 vouchered records shown · 2 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA5 detections
Where the DNA of Tetraodon miurus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found5
Studies independent surveys1
Countries1
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 5 detections have coordinates
Open the map1 country0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median24.5 °C 24.5–24.5
Seasonal swing summer↔winter2.50 °C
Max temp (day)29.8 °C
Min temp (night)20.2 °C
Precipitation13.4 mm/mo
Air humidity59.4 %
Moisture balance-105 mm/mo
Vapour deficit1,239 Pa
Wind speed1.30 m/s
Cloud cover54.6 %
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 2 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation7 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility157 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI5 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics18 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗