Acipenseriformes is an order of basal ray-finned fishes that includes living and fossil sturgeons and paddlefishes (Acipenseroidei), as well as the extinct families Chondrosteidae and Peipiaosteidae, and the more basal Eochondrosteus.
The Amiiformes order of fish has only one extant species, the bowfin. These Amiiformes are found in the freshwater systems of North America, in the United States and parts of southern Canada. They live in freshwater streams, rivers, and swamps.
Chimaeras are cartilaginous fish in the order Chimaeriformes, known informally as ghost sharks, rat fish, spookfish, or rabbit fish; the last three names are not to be confused with rattails, Opisthoproctidae, or Siganidae, respectively.
Leedsichthys is an extinct genus of pachycormid fish that lived in the oceans of the Middle to Late Jurassic. It is the largest ray-finned fish, and by extension, among the largest non-tetrapod fish known to have ever existed.
Temnodontosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the Early Jurassic period. They lived between 200 and 175 million years ago (Hettangian-Toarcian) in what is now Western Europe and Chile. They lived in the deeper areas of the open ocean. University of Bristol paleontologist Jeremy Martin described the genus Temnodontosaurus as "one of the most ecologically disparate genera of ichthyosaurs".
Chondrosteus is a genus of extinct actinopterygian belonging to the family Chondrosteidae. It lived during the Sinemurian in what is now England. Chondrosteus is remotely related with Modern sturgeons and paddlefishes. Similar to sturgeons, the jaws of Chondrosteus were free from the rest of the skull. Its scale cover was reduced to the upper lobe of the caudal fin like in paddlefish.
Leptolepis is an extinct genus of stem-teleost fish that lived in what is now Europe during the Jurassic period.
Mystriosaurus is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian). Fossil specimens have been found in the Whitby Mudstone of England and Posidonia Shale of Germany. The only known species, M. laurillardi, exceeded 4 metres (13 ft) in length.
Mawsonia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish. It is the largest of the coelacanth genera, ranging from an estimated 3.5 metres up to 6.3 metres long. It lived during the latest Jurassic to Cretaceous periods of South America, eastern North America, and Africa. Mawsonia was first described by British paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907.
Hauffiosaurus is an extinct genus of Early Jurassic pliosaurid plesiosaur known from Holzmaden of Germany and from Yorkshire of the United Kingdom. It was first named by Frank Robin O’Keefe in 2001 and the type species is Hauffiosaurus zanoni. In 2011, two additional species were assigned to this genus: H. longirostris and H. tomistomimus.
Aetheolepis is an extinct genus of ray-finned fish which lived in freshwater environments in what is now Western Australia and New South Wales during the Jurassic period. It contains one species, A. mirabilis. Aetheolepis was previously thought to be an archaeomaenid, until a 2016 study instead recovered it as a member of the family Dapediidae. Like other dapediids, it had a deep, discoid-shaped body. Fossils of A. mirabilis have been found in the Talbragar River fossil beds of New South Wales and the Colalura Sandstone of Western Australia. It was named by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1865 along with other Talbragar fish.
Strongylosteus is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the early Toarcian age of the Early Jurassic epoch. Its type species is Strongylosteus hindenburgi (monotypy). It is related to modern sturgeon and paddlefish (Acipenseroidei), but with a different kind of mouth than common species, made for hunting prey in open waters, with a strong lower jaw, similar to modern beluga.
Peipiaosteus is an extinct genus of prehistoric chondrostean ray-finned fish. Its fossils are found in the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation, Pani Lake, Liaoning Province, China.
The Whitby Mudstone is a Toarcian geological formation in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, England. The formation, part of the Lias Group, is present in the Cleveland and Worcester Basins and the East Midlands Shelf.
Chondrosteidae is a family of extinct actinopterygian fishes in the order Acipenseriformes. It comprises the Early Jurassic European genera Chondrosteus, Gyrosteus, and Strongylosteus. Included species were of large size, with body lengths ranging from 2 metres (6.6 ft) up to 7 metres (23 ft). Their skeleton was largely made up of bones, but ossification was reduced compared to other ray-fins.
The Whiteaves Formation is a geologic formation in British Columbia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Jurassic period.
The Marne de Flize is a geologic formation in France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Toarcian stage of the Jurassic period.
The Ciechocinek Formation is a Jurassic geologic formation which extends across the Baltic coast from Grimmen, Germany, to Nida, Lithuania, with its major sequence in Poland and boreholes in Kaliningrad. Dinosaur species uncovered here, including Emausaurus and other unclassified genus.
The Lava Formation is a Mesozoic geologic formation in Lithuania and Kaliningrad, being either the sister or the same unit as the Ciechocinek Formation. It represents the outcrop of Lower Toarcian layers in the Baltic Syncline and in the Lithuanian-Polish Syneclise. It is known by the presence of Miospores and Pollen, as well Plant remains. The formation contains grey, greenish, and dark grey silt and clay with interealatians and lenses of fine-grained sand, pyritic concretions and plant remains. The Jotvingiai Group Toarcian deposits represent deposits laid down in fresh water and brackish basins, possibly lagoons or coastal plain lakes. The Bartoszyce IG 1 of the Ciechocinek Formation shows how at the initial phase of the Toarcian there was a regional transgression in the Baltic Syncline, indicated by greenish-grey mudstones, heteroliths and fine-grained sandstones with abundant plant fossils and plant roots, what indicates a local delta progradation between the Lava and Ciechocinek Fms. Then a great accumulation of miospores indicates a local concentration, likely due to a rapidly decelerating fluvial flow in a delta-fringing lagoon forming a “hydrodynamic trap”, with the wave and currents stopping the miospores to spread to the basin. Latter a marsh system developed with numerous palaeosol levels, being overlayed by brackish-marine embayment deposits that return to lagoon-marsh facies with numerous plant roots and palaeosol levels in the uppermost section, ending the succession. Overall the facies show that the local Ciechocinek-Lava system was a sedimentary basin shallow and isolated, surrounded by a flat coastal/delta plain with marshes, delivering abundant spores and Phytoclasts, indicators of proximal landmasses with high aviability of wood and other plant material. This climate at the time of deposition was strongly seasonal, probably with monsoonal periods. Due to the abundant presence of deltaic sediments on the upper part, it is considered to be related to the retry of the sea level. The Lava Formation was deposited on a mostly continental setting, with its upper part, dominated by argillaceous sediments, corresponding to the Ciechocinek Formation. There is a great amount of kaolinite content, being present laterally in the basin, decreasing and lifting space to increasing smectite to the south-west of the formation. On the other hand, there is a great amount of coarsest sediments, which consist mostly of sands.
This list of fossil fishes described in 2020 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes of every kind that were described during the year 2020, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2020.
