Otocephala is a
clade of
ray-finned fishes within the infraclass
Teleostei that evolved some 230 million years ago. It is named for the presence of a hearing (otophysic) link from the
swimbladder to the
inner ear. Other names proposed for the group include Ostarioclupeomorpha and Otomorpha.
The clade is sister to
Euteleostei which contains the majority of bony fish alive today.[1][2][3][4]
In 2015, Benton and colleagues set a "plausible minimum" date for the origin of
crown Otocephala as about 228.4 million years ago. They argued that since the oldest locality for any diversity of stem teleosts is the
Carnian of Polberg bei Lunz, Austria, whose base is 235 million years old, a rough estimate for Otocephala can be made.[5][6] The earliest known fossil member of the group is Tischlingerichthys from the
Late Jurassic of
Germany.[7]
^Laurin, M.; Reisz, R.R. (1995). "A reevaluation of early amniote phylogeny". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 113 (2): 165–223.
doi:
10.1111/j.1096-3642.1995.tb00932.x.