Acrorhinichthys, Taverne & Capasso, 2015

Taverne, Louis & Capasso, Luigi, 2015, Osteology and relationships of Acrorhinichthys poyatoi gen. et sp. nov. (Pycnodontiformes) from the marine Late Cretaceous of Lebanon, European Journal of Taxonomy 116, pp. 1-30 : 21

1. Acrorhinichthys gen. nov. within Pycnodontomorpha

Nursall (2010) placed the pycnodont fishes in a super-order, Pycnodontomorpha [new usage for the former Pycnodontiformes ], divided in two orders, the Gyrodontiformes and the Pycnodontiformes [new usage for the former Pycnodontoidei]. Gyrodontiformes possess a dentary with dorsal and ventral branches, a short, more or less rectilinear parasphenoid, two dermosupraoccipitals, styliform teeth on the premaxilla and dentary, and small bony tesserae covering the cheek and the gular region. In Pycnodontiformes , the dentary preserves only its ventral branch, the parasphenoid is elongated, the teeth on the premaxilla and dentary are incisiform, the bony tesserae of the cheek are lost and there is only one dermosupraoccipital, except in Brembodidae where two dermosupraocciptals are preserved.

The osteological characters of Acrorhinichthys gen. nov. clearly place this fossil fish in the Pycnodontiformes and not in the Gyrodontiformes.