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Taxonomy from Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis (emended from Bürgin 1992): "Small fusiform fish of up to 50 mm in standard length (s.l.); single row of highly deepened scales, bearing the lateral line, occupying the whole flank and ending with a large semicircular one; frontals, parietals and dermopterotics fused in a single shield-like bone; maxilla shorter than mandible and free from the pear-like preopercle; no teeth; opercle much larger than subopercle; suborbitals absent; large and stout triangular dermosphenotic; clavicle present; tail slightly asymmetrical, with a very small body lobe supporting few epaxial rays; all fins lacking fringing fulcra." Reconstruction: References: Brough J. (1939), The Triassic fishes of Besano, Lombardy, 1-117. Bürgin, T. (1990). The dermal body armor of Habroichthys minimus, an unusual ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii; Peltopleuriformes) from the Middle Triassic of the Southern Alps. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Monatshefte, pp. 647-658. Bürgin T., Eichenberger U., et al (1991) Die Prosanto Formation - eine fischreiche Fossil-Lagerstätte in der Mitteltrias der Silvretta-Decke (Kanton Graubünden, Schweiz), Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae 84, 921-990. Bürgin T. (1992) Basal ray-finned fishes (Osteichthyes; Actinopterygii) from the Middle Triassic of Monte San Giorgio (Canton Tessin, Switzerland), Schweizerische Paläontologische Abhandlungen 114, 1-164.

Alternative combination: Peltopleurus orientalis Su, 1959. The fish was originally described by Su in 1959 as Peltopleurus orientalis but recombined by Tintori et al. in 2016 as Habroichthys orientalis. Taxonomy for Habroichthys orientalis according to Fossilworks.org. Diagnosis according to Su, 1959 p. 205: “A Peltopleurus with rather slenderly fusiform body. Head rather small, its length is less than the maximum depth of the body and being about one 4,5th of the total length. External skull-bones smooth. Posterior part of maxilla somewhat triangular in shape. Operculum slightly larger than suboperculum. Preoperculum vertical. Anal fin larger and with longer base than that of the dorsal. Origin of the dorsal fin slightly in front of that of the anal fin. Flank with longitudinal row of greatly deepened scales, covering up to three fourths of depth of body. Reconstruction of Habroichtys according to Griffith, 1977, p. 29: Identified by oilshale using Su, 1959. References: Su, T, (1959): Triassic Fishes from Kueichow, South-West China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3(4):205-215. Griffith, J. (1977): The Upper Triassic fishes from Polzberg bei Lunz, Austria. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 60(1), 1–93. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1977.tb00834.x Lin, H.-Q., Sun, Z.-Y., Tintori, A., Lombardo, C., Jiang, D.- Y. & Hao, W.-C. (2011): A new species of Habroichthys Brough, 1939 (Actinopterygii; Peltopleuriformes) from the Pelsonian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) of Yunnan Province, South China. – Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 262 (1): 79-89. DOI: 10.1127/0077-7749/2011/0186. Xu, Guang-Hui & Ma, Xin-Ying. (2016): A Middle Triassic stem-neopterygian fish from China sheds new light on the peltopleuriform phylogeny and internal fertilization. Science Bulletin. 61. 1766-1774. DOI: 10.1007/s11434-016-1189-5. Tintori, A., Lombardo, C. and Kustatscher, E. (2016): The Pelsonian (Anisian, Middle Triassic) fish assemblage from Monte Prà della Vacca/Kühwiesenkopf (Braies Dolomites, Italy). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 282:181-200. DOI: 10.1127/njgpa/2016/0612.