Asialepidotus

{{Short description|Extinct genus of fishes}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|245|235|Middle Triassic}}

| image = Asialepidotus shingyiensis NTM.jpg

| image_caption = A. shingyiensis fossil, National Taiwan Museum

| image2 = Asialepidotus NTM.jpg

| image2_caption = Fossil assigned to A. sp., National Taiwan Museum

| taxon = Asialepidotus shingyiensis

| authority = Su, 1959

| parent_authority = Su, 1959

}}

Asialepidotus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived during the Ladinian stage of the Middle Triassic epoch. It contains a single species, A. shingyiensis, from Guizhou, China.{{cite journal|last=Sepkoski |first=Jack |title=A compendium of fossil marine animal genera |journal=Bulletins of American Paleontology |volume=364 |page=560 |year=2002 |url=http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |accessdate=2009-04-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723131237/http://strata.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/jack/showgenera.php?taxon=611&rank=class |archivedate=2011-07-23 }}{{Cite web |title=PBDB |url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/basicTaxonInfo?taxon_no=35139 |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=paleobiodb.org}}

Its affinities have long been controversial, although it is known to be a very distant relative of extant bowfin in the clade Halecomorphi. It was initially placed with the bowfins in Amiiformes, then Parasemionotiformes, then the paraphyletic group Panxianichthyiformes. More recent morphological studies have supported it being an early ionoscopiform.{{Cite journal |last=Zuoyu |first=Sun |last2=Tintori |first2=Andrea |last3=Yaozhong |first3=Xu |last4=Lombardo |first4=Cristina |last5=Peigang |first5=Ni |last6=Dayong |first6=Jiang |date=2017-03-04 |title=A new non-parasemionotiform order of the Halecomorphi (Neopterygii, Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic of Tethys |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2016.1181679 |journal=Journal of Systematic Palaeontology |language=en |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=223–240 |doi=10.1080/14772019.2016.1181679 |issn=1477-2019|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |last=Xu |first=Guang-Hui |last2=Ma |first2=Xi-Ying |date=2018 |title=Redescription and phylogenetic reassessment of Asialepidotus shingyiensis (Holostei: Halecomorphi) from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of China |url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/184/1/95/4827721 |access-date=2024-03-10 |website=academic.oup.com |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx105}}