This list of fossil fish research presented in 2022 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes, and other fishes that were described during the year, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoichthyology that occurred in 2022.
Jawless vertebrates
Jawless vertebrate research
A study on the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of lampreys is published by Brownstein & Near (2022), who find Mesomyzon mengae to be a member of the lamprey crown group, and argue that living lamprey biodiversity results from diversifications extending from the Cretaceous to present, rather than gradually accumulating since the Paleozoic. Chevrinais et al. (2022) describe the ontogeny of Euphanerops longaevus. Meng et al. (2022) describe new fossil material of Pterogonaspis yuhaii from the Devonian Xujiachong Formation (Yunnan, China), providing new information on the cranial anatomy of this galeaspid, including the first fossil evidence for the position of the esophagus in galeaspids. The first detailed description of the complex of external endolymphatic structures in headshields of members of the genus Tremataspis from the Silurian of Estonia, with tiny platelets located within the openings of the endolymphatic duct and possibly functioning as a sieve that allowed or prevented material from entering the inner ear, is published by Märss, Wilson & Viljus (2022).
Placoderms
Placoderm research
A study on the morphology and function of the antiarch jaw apparatus is published by Lebedev et al. (2022). Wang & Zhu (2022) describe the squamation and scale morphology of Parayunnanolepis xitunensis, recognize at least thirteen morphotypes of scales in P. xitunensis, and interpret their findings as indicative of the high regionalization of squamation at the root of jawed vertebrates. Zhu et al. (2022) redescribe the pelvic region of the holotype of Parayunnanolepis xitunensis, and report that, instead of having two large plates previously designated as dermal pelvic girdles, P. xitunensis had three pairs of lateral pelvic plates and one large oval median pelvic plate. Trinajstic et al. (2022) report preservation of a three-dimensionally mineralized heart, thick-walled stomach and bilobed liver from members of Arthrodira from the Devonian Gogo Formation (Australia), and interpret this finding as indicative of the presence of a flat S-shaped heart separated from the liver and other abdominal organs, and of the absence of lungs in members of Arthrodira; subsequently Jensen et al. (2023) question evidence of the presence of a chambered heart in the studied fossil material presented by Trinajstic et al. (2022).
Acanthodians
Acanthodian research
A study aiming to quantify the completeness of the acanthodian fossil record is published by Schnetz et al. (2022). A study on the biomechanical properties and likely function of bony spines in front of the fins of members of the genus Machaeracanthus is published by Ferrón et al. (2022).