Nursallia Blot, 1987

Poyato-Ariza F. J. & Wenz S., 2002, A new insight into pycnodontiform fishes, Geodiversitas 24 (1), pp. 139-248 : 223

Genus Nursallia Blot, 1987

TYPE SPECIES. — Nursallia veronae Blot, 1987 .

INCLUDED SPECIES. — The type species, N. flavellatum? ( Cope, 1886) , N.? gutturosum ( Arambourg, 1954) , N.? goedeli ( Heckel, 1854) , N. ventralis? ( Davis, 1887) .

REVISED DIAGNOSIS. — Nursalliine fish with the following autapomorphies: frontals strongly curved, very broad, giving the skull a hemispherical shape dorsally and placing the orbit at about midway between the dorsal and the ventral borders of the head; neural and haemal adjacent arcocentra in hyper-complex contact; caudal fin vertical, very short, five to six times higher than long, with upper and lower lobes practically perpendicular to the axis of the body and defining a vertical axis in the fin, whose distal border is slightly convex. Unique combination of reverted primitive and derived characters: caudal pedicle differentiated; vomerine teeth (sub)circular in contour; neural and haemal corresponding arcocentra surrounding notochord completely; last neural spine not supporting precurrent caudal fin rays vestigial; six to eight hypochordal elements in caudal endoskeleton.