Ichthyodectiformes

Ichthyodectiformes is an extinct order of marine stem-teleost ray-finned fish. The order is named after the genus Ichthyodectes, established by Edward Drinker Cope in 1870. Ichthyodectiforms are usually considered to be some of the closest relatives of the teleost crown group.

They were most diverse throughout the Cretaceous period, though basal forms like Thrissops, Occithrissops and Allothrissops are known from the Middle-Late Jurassic of Europe and North America. They were almost entirely wiped out by the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, but a single species, Saurocephalus lanciformis, appears to have survived into the earliest Paleocene (Danian).