Cranial structure typically palæoniscoid, with wide gape and oblique suspensorium; teeth conical, sharp, incurved, of different sizes, larger alternating with smaller. Fins palmæoniscoid, fulcrated; dorsal nearly opposite the interval between the ventrals and the anal; caudal powerfully heterocercal, deeply cleft, inequilobate. Body-scales thin, rounded, but seldom symmetrically so, deeply imbricating; their external free or ganoid areæ distinctly marked off, and sculptured with closely set ridges which are apparently tubular internally. Scales of the caudal body-prolongation of the usual pakæoniscoid contour.