In the last 15 years, the discovery of several new actinopterygian fish faunas from the Early and Middle Triassic of the Tethys, cast new light on the timing, speed and range of their recovery after the end-Permian crisis. In addition to several new taxa having been described, the stratigraphical and geographical record of many others have been greatly extended. In fact, most of the new fossiliferous sites are in southern China, thus at the Eastern end of the Tethys, and furthermore a few are somewhat older (Chaohu, Panxian, Luoping) than the major classical Western Tethys sites (Monte San Giorgio). Following these new finds, it is possible to have a better definition of the Triassic recovery stages. Indeed, after a quite short phase till the end of the Smithian (Olenekian, Early Triassic) in which a rather consistent fauna was present all around the Pangea coasts, a major radiation occurred in the Early-Middle Anisian after the new Middle Triassic fish fauna already appeared in the late Early Triassic, thus occuring well before what was previously supposed from the Alps localities. Furthermore, the new assemblages from southern China point to an early broader differentiation among the basal neopterygians rather than in the 'subholosteans', the group that was then dominant in the Western Tethys since the Late Anisian. It stands that during the Norian a new basal neopterygian radiation gave rise to several new branches that dominated the remaining part of the Mesozoic.

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ABSTRACT. The new species Peltopleurus nuptialis is described on the basis of several well preserved specimens from the uppermost Ladinian Kalkschieferzone of Ca' del Frate. This new species is characterized by small size and the presence of hook-like fulcra on all fins except the caudal, and by tubercles on the rostral and nasal bones interpreted as secondary sexual traits. There is also a modified anal fin in supposed males, which probably acted as a gonopodium, pointing to a strong sexual dimorphism. A distinctive morphological variability seems to characterize peltopleurids: a comparison with groups of living fishes also showing morphological plasticity and sexual dimorphism is given in order to hypothesize similar behaviours and adaptations in the fossil forms.

Two complete specimens from the Pelsonian (Middle Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Luoping, Yunnan Province, South China are referred to a new actinopterygian genus, Luopingichthys gen. nov., and ascribed to the perleidiform family Polzbergidae based especially on a typical synapomorphy of a peculiar premaxillary‐maxillary complex, i.e., the fusion between premaxillary and maxillary along the antero‐dorsal margin of the maxillary. The new taxon differs from other deep‐bodied representatives of the family, Felberia and Stoppania, in its fusiform or deep fusiform body shape; sickle‐shaped preopercular with short infraorbital process; lack of modified scales at the base of the anal fin; the short‐based dorsal fin; scarcely ornamented scales; and thin anterior teeth. Based on a redescription of the holotype of the taxon Ctenognathichthys hattichi from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) Prosanto Formation, Canton Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, the only known specimen, which shows the same fusion between premaxillary and maxillary, the systematic position of the species is clarified and the taxon is proposed to be a further representative of the family Polzbergidae, and is transferred to the new genus.

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