2026 in paleoichthyology

Further information: 2026 in paleontology

This list records new taxa of fossil fish that were announced or described in 2026. Other peer-reviewed publications on discoveries related to fish paleontology which occurred in that year are also detailed here.

Jawless vertebrates

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Asioaspis [1]	Gen. et sp. nov		Zhang et al.	Devonian (Lochkovian)	Xishancun Formation	China	A member of Galeaspida belonging to the group Polybranchiaspiformes. The type species is A. brachyotus.

Cartilaginous fishes

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Lonchidionoides [2]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Vullo et al.	Cretaceous (Barremian–Cenomanian)	Tiout Formation	Algeria Brazil	A member of Hybodontiformes belonging to the family Lonchidiidae. The type species is L. trifurcatum.
Parvodus graciliani [3]	Sp. nov		Ribeiro & França	Late Jurassic	Aliança Formation	Brazil	A member of Hybodontiformes belonging to the family Lonchidiidae.
Polyacrodus microdon [4]	Sp. nov		Wen et al.	Early Triassic	Luolou Formation	China	A member of Hybodontiformes.

Cartilaginous fish research

• New fossil material of distobatid, hybodontid and lonchidiid hybodontiform sharks is described from the Cenomanian Alcântara Formation (Brazil) by Neves et al. (2026), providing evidence of biogeographic links between Cretaceous shark assemblages from South America and Africa. ^[5]
• Baptista et al. (2026) report the discovery of a tooth of Otodus megalodon at the Rio Grande Rise, providing evidence of presence of the species in southern Atlantic Ocean during the early–middle Miocene. ^[6]

Ray-finned fishes

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Ostenolepis [7]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Franceschi, Marramà & Carnevale	Early Jurassic (Sinemurian)	Moltrasio Formation	Italy	A member of Palaeoniscimorpha. The type species is O. marianii.
Peripeltopleurus jurassicus [7]	Sp. nov	Valid	Franceschi, Marramà & Carnevale	Early Jurassic (Sinemurian)	Moltrasio Formation	Italy
Pholidolepis teruzzii [7]	Sp. nov	Valid	Franceschi, Marramà & Carnevale	Early Jurassic (Sinemurian)	Moltrasio Formation	Italy
Zealandorhynchus [8]	Gen. et sp. nov		Rust et al.	Eocene	Kurinui Formation	New Zealand	A billfish. The type species is Z. fordycei. Announced in 2025; the final article version was published in 2026.

Ray-finned fish research

• Zhang et al. (2026) report the first fossil evidence of presence of Saurichthys in the Early Triassic Nanzhang-Yuan'an fauna (China). ^[9]
• Veiga et al. (2026) consider Tharrhias castellanoi to be a nomen dubium , and assign its fossil material to Tharrhias cf. araripis. ^[10]
• Kovalchuk et al (2026) document the paleofauna of a Middle Miocene-aged locality in Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, identifying 5 genera and 3 families of ray-finned fish, and finding evidence that it represented a marginal freshwater habitat on the outskirts of the Forecarpathian Basin. ^[11]

Lobe-finned fishes

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Location	Notes	Images
Amazinyomakhulu [12]	Gen. et sp. nov		Gess & Ahlberg	Devonian (Famennian)	Witpoort Formation	South Africa	A member of the family Onychodontidae. The type species is A. mallinsonia.

General research

• Evidence from the study of the fossil record of early to mid-Paleozoic fishes, interpreted as indicative of diversification of jawed vertebrates and their close jawless relatives in isolated refugia in the aftermath of the Late Ordovician mass extinction, is presented by Hagiwara & Sallan (2026). ^[13]
• Crothers et al. (2026) study the composition of a diverse, actinopterygian-dominated fish assemblage from the ReBecca's Hollow locality from the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation (Colorado, United States), different from contemporary assemblages from higher latitudes and interpreted as indicative of provincialism of fish assemblages from Laramidia dating to the Campanian-Maastrichtian transition. ^[14]

References

1. Zhang, R.-R.; Zhang, N.; Li, Q.; Zhu, M.; Gai, Z.-K. (2026). "Asioaspis, a new genus of Polybranchiaspiformes (Galeaspida, stem-gnathostomes) from the Lower Devonian of Yunnan, China". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. doi:10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.260113.
2. Vullo, R.; Fragoso, L. G. C.; Bittencourt, J. S.; Pérez-García, A.; Bouchemla, I.; Benyoucef, M. (2026). "A new genus of lonchidiid hybodontiform sharks from the Cretaceous of North Africa and South America". Geological Magazine. 163 e5. doi: 10.1017/S0016756825100484 .
3. Ribeiro, L. S.; França, M. A. G. (2026). "A new species of Lonchidiidae (Hybodontiformes) from the Late Jurassic of Brazil (Aliança Formation, Jatobá Basin)". The Anatomical Record. doi: 10.1002/ar.70120 .
4. Wen, W.; Zhou, C.; Zhang, Q.; Hu, S.; Min, X. (2026). "New Discoveries of Chondrichthyan Microfossils from the Lower Triassic Luolou Formation in Daying Area，Ziyun County，Guizhou Province". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. doi:10.19800/j.cnki.aps.2024046.
5. Neves, G. S.; Medeiros, M. A.; Cupello, C.; Leite Filho, D.; Brito, P. M. (2026). "Hybodontiform sharks from the Late Cretaceous Alcântara Formation, São Luís Basin, Northeast Brazil". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2025.2582776.
6. Baptista, M. C.; Figueiredo Iza, E. R. H.; Dias Cavalcanti, J. A.; Simões, H. A.; Palmeira, L. C. M.; Pessoa, J. C. O.; Frazão, E. P.; Santos Sobrinho, V. R. (2026). "First in situ documentation of a fossil tooth attributed of †Otodus megalodon from the deep sea of Rio Grande Rise, South Atlantic Ocean". Journal of the Geological Survey of Brazil. doi:10.29396/jgsb.2026.v9.n1.3.
7. Franceschi, F.; Marramà, G.; Carnevale, G. (2026). "Bony fishes (Osteichthyes) from the Sinemurian (Jurassic) Osteno Konservat-Lagerstätte (Como, NW Italy)". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 132 (1): 9–58. doi:10.54103/2039-4942/29058.
8. Rust, Seabourne; Wium, Morne; Otero, Rodrigo A.; Terezow, Marianna (2026-02-01). "Fossil billfish (Xiphioidei) from the Eocene of Hampden, North Otago, New Zealand" . Gondwana Research. 150: 301–311. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2025.09.021. ISSN   1342-937X.
9. Zhang, Y.-T.; Wu, F.-X.; Li, Q.; Qiao, Y.; Hu, Y.-W.; Shen, X.-Y.; Liu, J. (2026). "First record of predatory fish Saurichthys from the late Early Triassic Nanzhang-Yuan'an fauna, South China". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. doi:10.1080/08912963.2025.2588256.
10. Veiga, I. M.; De Mayrinck, D.; Bergqvist, L. P.; Brito, P. M. (2026). "On the taxonomic status of Tharrhias castellanoi Duarte and Santos, 1962 (Gonorynchiformes, Chanidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2604599. doi:10.1080/02724634.2025.2604599.
11. Kovalchuk, Oleksandr; Tuzyak, Yaryna; Gorobets, Leonid; Yanenko, Vadym; Świdnicka, Ewa; Dubikovska, Anastasiia; Stefaniak, Krzysztof; Barkaszi, Zoltán (2026-01-02). "A new Sarmatian (late Middle Miocene) vertebrate assemblage from the periphery of the Forecarpathian Basin" . Historical Biology. 38 (1): 279–291. doi:10.1080/08912963.2025.2461156. ISSN   0891-2963.
12. Gess, R. W.; Ahlberg, P. E. (2026). "High paleolatitude onychodont and rhizodont remains from the upper Famennian (Upper Devonian) Waterloo Farm lagerstätte of South Africa". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2576738. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2025.2576738 .
13. Hagiwara, W.; Sallan, L. (2026). "Mass extinction triggered the early radiations of jawed vertebrates and their jawless relatives (gnathostomes)". Science Advances. 12 (2) eaeb2297. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb2297 .
14. Crothers, J.; Eberle, J.; Brinkman, D.; Wurtz, A.; Heckert, A. B.; Hunt-Foster, R. K.; Foster, J. R.; Dirkes, I. C.; Dunn, R. (2026). "An actinopterygian-dominated fish fauna from the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, northwestern Colorado, and evidence for provinciality across Laramidia at the Campanian/Maastrichtian boundary". Cretaceous Research 106313. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2026.106313 .