This list of fossil fish research presented in 2025 is a list of new fossil taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes that were described during the year, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2025.
Jawless vertebrates
Placoderms
Placoderm research
- Redescription and a study on the affinities of Exutaspis megista is published by Xue et al. (2025).
Cartilaginous fishes
Cartilaginous fish research
- A diverse assemblage of cartilaginous fish fossils, including the youngest record of Phoebodus latus reported to date, is described from the Upper Devovian strata from the South Urals (Russia) by Ivanov et al. (2025).
- Zhao et al. (2025) interpret Laffonia helvetica as a holocephalan egg capsule morphologically intermediate between Carboniferous Crookallia and Vetacapsula and extant chimaerid capsules.
- A well-preserved specimen of Chimaeropsis paradoxa, displaying soft parts, is described from the Tithonian strata in the Solnhofen area (Germany) by Duffin, Lauer & Lauer (2025).
- Popov & Rogov (2025) describe chimaeroid fossil material from the Coniacian strata from the Krasnoyarsk Krai (Russia), providing evidence of presence of Edaphodon sp. and Harriotta sp. in the polar latitudes of eastern Siberia during the Late Cretaceous.
- Gayford & Jambura (2025) review evidence of different drivers of diversification of elasmobranchs throughout their evolutionary history.
- Greif et al. (2025) reconstruct feeding habits of Ctenacanthus concinnus, interpreting it as likely opportunistic feeder that used an array of feeding mechanisms.
- Staggl et al. (2025) study diversity dynamics of neoselachians throughout the Mesozoic, providing evidence that higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations had negative effect on neoselachian diversity.
- Evidence from the study of oxygen isotope composition of teeth of Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Cretalamna appendiculata, Scapanorhynchus texanus, Squalicorax kaupi, Squalicorax pristodontus and Ptychodus mortoni from the Upper Cretaceous strata from the Gulf Coastal Plain, interpreted as likely indicative of increased body temperature of P. mortoni and indicative of active heating and migration from warmer waters by C. mantelli, is presented by Comans, Tobin & Totten (2025)
- Amadori et al. (2025) reconstruct the lower crushing plate of Ptychodus decurrens on the basis of new fossil material from the Upper Cretaceous strata in Croatia.
- Shimada et al. (2025) argue that Otodus megalodon likely had slenderer body than the great white shark, and estimate that it might have reached about 24.3 m in body length.
- A study on the evolution of members of Squaliformes is published by Marion, Condamine & Guinot (2025), who find evidence of multiple colonizations of the deep sea that coincided with marine transgressions and were likely facilitated by the evolution of bioluminescence.
- Greenfield (2025) reidentify the large rostrum and four fragmentary rostral denticles from the Dakhla Formation originally attributed to Onchopristis sp. by Capasso et al. (2024) as Sclerorhynchoidei indet. and Sclerorhynchus cf. leptodon, respectively, while Capasso et al. (2025) supported their original identification and stated that any taxonomic determination without direct examination is unacceptable.
Ray-finned fishes
Otolith taxa
Ray-finned fish research
- A study on the development of teeth of a stem ray-finned fish specimen from the Devonian Gneudna Formation (Australia), providing evidence of similarities with the organization of lungfish tooth plates, is published by Chen (2025).
- Cooper et al. (2025) study the skull roof anatomy of Gyrosteus mirabilis, and interpret both G. mirabilis and Strongylosteus hindenburgi as species distinct from Chondrosteus acipenseroides.
- Pacheco-Ordaz, Reyes-López & Alvarado-Ortega (2025) identify a specimen of Paranursallia gutturosa from the Turonian strata from the San José de Gracia Quarry (Mexico), assign further nursalliine pycnodontid specimens from the Agua Nueva Formation to the same species, and discard report of the presence of Nursallia tethyensis in the Turonian strata of the Huehuetla Quarry.
- Redescription of Zignoichthys oblongus, based on data from new fossil material from the Pesciara site of the Bolca locality (Italy), is published by Ridolfi et al. (2025).
- Collareta et al. (2025) report the discovery of fused dentaries of an ocean sunfish from the Lower Pliocene strata of the Siena-Radicofani Basin (Italy), representing the first finding of fossil material of a member of this group in post-Miocene strata outside North America.
- Přikryl et al. (2025) report the presence of fossil material of an indeterminate goby and members of the genera Herklotsichthys and Ophisternon in the Pleistocene Laguna Formation (Philippines).
- Evidence of changes of diversity of ray-finned fishes from the south of Eastern Europe (Moldova, Russia and Ukraine) from the late Miocene to the late Pleistocene is presented by Barkaszi & Kovalchuk (2025).
Lobe-finned fishes
Lobe-finned fish research
- Cui et al. (2025) provide new information on the anatomy of Styloichthys changae, and study the evolution of cosmine in lobe-finned fishes.
General research
- Andrews, Shirley & Figueroa (2025) report the discovery of a new, diverse fish assemblage from the Carboniferous (Mississippian) Marshall Sandstone (Michigan, United States).
- Swimming trails of fishes with diverse morphologies or swimming behaviors are described from the Permian Salagou Formation (France) by Moreau et al. (2025).
- Pokorný et al. (2025) describe trace fossils produced during death struggle of fishes from the Upper Cretaceous marine sediments in Lebanon, and name new ichnotaxa Pinnichnus haqilensis and P. emmae.
- Deville de Periere et al. (2025) report the discovery of a diverse assemblage of marine fishes from the Eocene Dammam Formation (Saudi Arabia) .
References
