Otolith taxa Ray-finned fish research • Vanhaesebroucke & Cloutier (2026) study the morphological variation among Devonian and Carboniferous ray-finned fishes, and interpret their diversification as most likely driven by adaptations to diverse feeding strategies. • Murray et al. (2026) report the discovery of fossil material of
bichirs from the Maastrichtian
Maevarano Formation (Madagascar), representing the first known record of the group outside of South America and continental Africa. • Zhang et al. (2026) report the first fossil evidence of presence of
Saurichthys in the Early Triassic Nanzhang-Yuan'an fauna (China). • Friedman &
Giles (2026) study the cranial anatomy of
Chondrosteus acipenseroides and reevaluate purported anatomical evidence of affinities of fishes such as saurichthyiforms,
Birgeria,
Errolichthys, coccolepidids and
Eochondrosteus with
Acipenseriformes, finding no compelling evidence for placement of taxa other than chondrosteids in the acipenseriform
stem group. • Stack, Kligman & Stricklin (2026) provide new information on the anatomy of tubercles from the snout of
Redfieldius gracilis, and interpret the studied structures as dermal
odontodes that evolved independently from those seen in living fishes. • Tintori et al. (2026) redescribe
"Peltopleurus" orientalis on the basis of data from new fossil material from the Ladinian strata of the Falang Formation (China), and assign the studied species to the genus
Habroichthys. • Taxonomic revision and a study on the affinities of
Macromesodon and
Apomesodon is published by Ebert (2026). • Unwin et al. (2026) argue that the
holotype of purported pterosaur
Bakiribu waridza is actually fossil material of an indeterminate ray-finned fish (possibly an amiid). • Cooper & Maxwell (2026) redescribe
Sauropsis longimana, interpret it as the sole species belonging to the genus
Sauropsis, and transfer
"Sauropsis" depressus to the genus
Simocormus. • Drumheller et al. (2026) report the discovery of a fish tooth embedded in a cervical vertebra of a specimen of
Polycotylus latipinnis from the Cretaceous
Mooreville Chalk (Alabama, United States), interpreted as likely evidence of an attack by
Xiphactinus. • Veiga et al. (2026) consider
Tharrhias castellanoi to be a
nomen dubium, and assign its fossil material to
Tharrhias cf. araripis. • Yang et al. (2026) describe fossil material of an indeterminate
cyprinid and an indeterminate member of
Barbini from the Miocene strata of the
Dingqing Formation (Lunpola Basin, Tibet, China), interpreted as indicative of greater diversity of cyprinids in the hinterland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau during the early–middle Miocene compared to the present. • Panzeri et al. (2026) describe cranial anatomy of
Arhinolemur scalabrinii, and interpret
Megaleporinus as a
junior synonym of
Arhinolemur. • Caron et al. (2026) report the discovery of fossil material of a member of the genus
Yuskaichthys from the Paleocene
Santa Lucía Formation (Bolivia), extending known geographic and temporal range ot the genus. • Tennenbaum et al. (2026) identify microfossil teeth indistinguishable from those of extant members of the genus
Cyclothone in the Eocene strata from
Campbell Plateau south of New Zealand, representing the oldest record of the genus or its
stem lineage reported to date. • Redescription of the anatomy and a study on the affinities of
Palaeocentrotus boggildi is published by Schrøder, Lindow & Carnevale (2026). • The largest
diodontid tooth plate batteries reported to date are described from the Pliocene
Yorktown Formation on the continental shelf of Onslow Bay (North Carolina, United States) by Maisch et al. (2026). • The first fossil record of
Arothron sp. is reported from the Pleistocene strata of the Liuchungchi Formation (Taiwan) by Lee et al. (2026). • Kovalchuk
et al (2026) document the paleofauna of a
Middle Miocene-aged locality in
Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, identifying 5 genera and 3 families of ray-finned fish, and finding evidence that it represented a marginal freshwater habitat on the outskirts of the Forecarpathian Basin. • Singh et al. (2026) report the first discovery of freshwater fish otoliths otoliths from the upper Pliocene strata of the Mohand section of Siwaliks (Uttar Pradesh, India). ==Lobe-finned fishes==