Article: The actinopterygian fish Prohalecites from the Triassic of northern Italy

The bony fish Prohalecites is redescribed from new well-preserved material from the locality of Ca' del Frate (northern Italy), dated close to the Ladinian-Carnian boundary. A few poorly preserved specimens from the type locality, Perledo (Ladinian), have also been restudied. The specimens represent several ontogenetic stages as evidenced by vertebral column development, and it is concluded that in structure Prohalecites is intermediate between the Parasemionotidae and Dapedium plus the Pholidophoridac, being closer to the last two. In fact Prohalecites, though similar to some of the Parasemionotidae in the dermal skull covering, has a splint-like quadratojugal, similar in shape and position to that of the Pholidophoridae, but not fused to the quadrate (as is the case for Dapedium), and ural neural arches approaching the uroneural condition of the Pholidophoridae.