burrowing goby
Croilia mossambica Smith, 1955
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Croilia mossambica, the burrowing goby or naked goby, is a species of goby native fresh, brackish and marine waters of Mozambique, South Africa and Madagascar. This species can be found on fine-grained sandy substrates in still waters at depths of from 1 to 16 metres (3.3 to 52.5 ft). It can reach a length of 6 centimetres (2.4 in) TL. It is currently the only known member of its genus.
Wikipedia contributors, Croilia; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:10:01.861134+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Croilia mossambica Smith, 1955
- Name authority
- Smith, 1955
- Common name
- burrowing goby
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Gobiiformes
- Family
- Gobiidae
- Genus
- Croilia
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderGobiiformes
- familyGobiidae Cuvier, 1816
- subfamilyGobiinae Cuvier, 1816
- genusCroilia Smith, 1955
- speciesCroilia mossambica Smith, 1955
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Smith, J. L. B. (1955). An interesting new gobiiform fish from South Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Series 12), 8 (86) (art. 14): 106–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222935508651834 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:ZL6V. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.