Cladocyclus Agassiz, 1841

Berrell, Rodney W., Alvarado-Ortega, Jesús, Yabumoto, Yoshitaka & Salisbury, Steven W., 2014, The first record of the ichthyodectiform fish Cladocyclus from eastern Gondwana: A new species from the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 59 (4), pp. 903-920 : 906

Genus Cladocyclus Agassiz, 1841

Type species: Cladocyclus gardneri Agassiz, 1841 ; near Jardim village , Ceará, Brazil, Aptian–Albian strata of the Santana Formation .

Emended diagnosis.—Medium-sized icthyodectiform fishes adults> 80 cm total standard length) that can be diagnosed from other ichthyodectoids based on the following unique combination of features (autapomorphies marked with “a”; amended from the diagnosis presented in Leal and Brito 2004): approximately 64 vertebrae (not known for C. geddesi sp. nov.); premaxillary, maxillary, and dentary with teeth shared with all ichthyodeciforms except the toothless Heckelichthys vexillifer ); dentary possesses a single large fanglike tooth (“a”); juveniles bearing short intercalar, adults with a large intercalar process extending posteriorly (“a”); long axes of the vertical and horizontal arms of the cleithrum oriented approximately perpendicular to each (shared with Vallecillichthys multivertebratum ); mandibular articular facet in which the articular surface comprises portions of the angular, the articular and the retroarticular; caudal fin endoskeleton with two ural centra, eight hypurals, one epural and six uroneurals (“a”; not known for Cladocyclus geddesi ).

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—Mid-Cretaceous of western and eastern Gondwana:Aptian–Albian of north-eastern Brazil; upper Albian of Australia; upper Cenomannian– lower Turonian of Morocco.