Platycephalus is a genus of mostly marine, demersal ray-finned fish belonging to the family Platycephalidae.

Platycephalus was first proposed as a genus in 1795 by the German physician and naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch with Callionymus indicus, which had been described in 1748 by Carl Linnaeus from "Asia", as its type species.

[5] There are currently 19 recognised species in this genus:[6][3] Platycephalus flatheads have no less than two spines on the preoperculum.

They are further separated by having a single band of vomerine teeth rather than two distinct patches.

[10] The largest species is P. fuscus with a maximum published total length of 120 cm (47 in) while the smallest is P. orbitalis with a maximum published total length of 33.3 cm (13.1 in).