Cleithrolepis

Cleithrolepis is an extinct genus of freshwater ray-finned fish that lived from the Induan age to the Anisian in what is now Australia and Libya. A species from Late Triassic Germany, C. brueckneri, was also ascribed to Cleithrolepis.

Taxonomy

The following species are known:

†C. altus Woodward, 1890 - Olenekian or Anisian of New South Wales, Australia
†C. granulatus Egerton, 1864 - Induan of Tasmania, Australia to Anisian of New South Wales, Australia
†C. major Gardiner, 1988 - Anisian of Cyrenaica, Libya

Dubious remains are known from the Ladinian of Spain. The dubious species "C." brueckneri Oertle, 1931 from the Carnian of Germany was previously assigned to this genus, although its actual taxonomic status remains uncertain. The former species C. extoni Woodward, 1888 from South Africa has been reclassified into the related genus Cleithrolepidina, while the former species C. cuyana from Argentina has been reclassified into Pseudobeaconia in the Louwoichthyiformes.
It was formerly placed in the order Perleidiformes, but recent taxonomic revisions have found that order to be non-monophyletic, and it is now placed in the order Polzbergiiformes.

Appearance

The genus grew to about long. It had a weak lower jaw with teeth only at the tip.

Occurrence

Cleithrolepis lived in rivers, billabongs and lakes in the large braided river system that deposited the Hawkesbury Sandstone in what is now New South Wales, with fossils found in shale lenses within the sandstone. Fossils were also found in Tasmania and in a drill core sample from Libya, below the surface.