Austroptyctodus gardineri is a small ptyctodontid placoderm fish from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia. First described by Miles & Young (1977)Miles, R.S. & Young, G.C. 1977. Placoderm interrelationships reconsidered in the light of new ptyctodontids from Gogo Western Australia. Linn. Soc. Symp. Series 4: 123-198. as a new species of the German genus Ctenurella. Long (1997)Long, J.A. 1997. Ptyctodontid fishes from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, with a revision of the German genus Ctenurella Orvig 1960. Geodiversitas 19: 515-555. redescribed the German material and found major differences in the skull roof pattern so assigned it to a new genus, Austroptyctodus. This genus lacks spinal plates and has Ptyctodus-like toothplates.
The most significant discovery about Austroptyctodus is that one specimen depicts a female pregnant with 3 unborn embryos inside her, showing that like Materpiscis, also from Gogo, this genus was a live bearer that reproduced through internal fertilization.Long, J.A., Trinajstic, K., Young, G.C. & Senden, T. 2008. Live birth in the Devonian period. Nature 453: 650-653.
Feeding habits Austroptyctodus fossil individuals have ostracods recovered in the abdominal region. These ostracods were related to nocturnal ones, suggesting it hunted at night.
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