A bowfin relative from the Jurassic of Germany

[Halichoeres]

From the Upper Jurassic of southern Germany, here's a new halecomorph fish (a stem-group bowfin, but outside Amiiformes, being instead part of the extinct order †Ionoscopiformes). Of the once-diverse Halecomorphi, only one species (or, depending on whom you ask, a complex of closely related species) remains, the bowfin Amia calva of eastern North America. The authors have named the new old species Sanctusichthys rieteri ("[prepatator Markus] Rieter's holy fish"). Here's a photo of the holotype:


That spray of objects that looks like narrow leaves are the branchiostegals, a set of thin bones connected by membranes that form the lower surface of the gill chamber.

Paper (paywall, but don't let that stop you): https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2020.1771348

[Faelrin]

To be honest it was looking like a chtulu type abomination at a glance. I was immediately thinking "what happened to it?" Thanks for the description of what I'm actually looking at here though. That aside I really like the preservation of scales and the lateral line I think? I'm a bit rusty on my fish biology stuff these days.

[Halichoeres]

Haha, yeah, it looks pretty be-tentacled. Other than that, good preservation. They were even able to reconstruct the sensory canals of the head.