a New PARASEMIONOTID-LIKE Fish from the Lower Triassic of Jurong, Jiangsu Province, South China

Based on a well-preserved specimen from the Early Triassic Lower Qinglong Formation exposed at Qingshan Quarry, Jurong, Jiangsu Province of China, the new taxon Peia jurongensis gen. et sp. nov. is named and described with anatomical details of its dermal skull, neurocranium and postcranial skeleton. The new taxon is characterized by the following set of characters: shallow V-shaped, tuber-like rostral; anterior part of frontal widened to roughly same width as its posterior part; roughly squared parietal; supraorbital absent; wide and slightly posteriorly inclined preopercle; five small ossifications present in dorsal half of preopercle; preopercular canal shifting anteriorly in ventral half of the preopercle, and reaching the anteroventral corner of this bone; dermosphenotic joining the skull roof and with a descending lamina; numerous branchiostegal rays. Comparisons are made between the new taxon and several parasemionotids from the same locality; a discussion is carried out on the distribution and evolution of several characters in halecomorphs and other closely related neopterygians.