Santanichthys diasii (Silva Santos 1958; Filleleul and Maisey 2004; Early Cretaceous; 3cm; DGM-DNPM 647P) was a tiny Santana Formation fish considered the oldest characiform and otophysan. Here it nests with Spinocaudichthys. It is the earliest appearance of a Weberian apparatus, a sound amplifier that connects the swim bladder to the auditory system. Note the extremely deep mandible.

Marcopoloicthys furrei (Arratia 2022, Middle Triassic, 4cm in length) Arratia 2022 described Marcopoloichthys as a Middle Triassic suction feeder with highly mobile mouth parts, as seen in highly derived ray-fin fish taxa in the LRT.

From the abstract: "The combination of primitive and advanced characters proved to be critical when M. furreri was added to a previous hypothesis of neopterygian relationships, because it provided unquestionable support for Marcopoloichthys as a stem teleost or teleosteomorph." By contrast, the LRT nests Marcopoloichthys close to Hippocampus and Phractolaemus.

Phractolaemus ansorgii (Boulenger 1901; 20cm) is the hingemouth, or mud minnow, an extant African freshwater fish not previously associated with Fundulus. Unlike any other gnathostome, the 'premaxilla' appears to rotate on the front axis of the 'dentary', acting like a vacuum cleaner sweeper to fling small bottom detritus into the tiny dorsal mouth. Two catfish-like sensory barbels probe and sense the substrate as this fish swims head down, tail up over the substrate. The swim bladder can act as a lung. Watch the hingemouth feeding here. The opercula wrap beneath the jaws and overlap each other.