Revised 23 Feb. 2023
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Neoceratodus Castelnau 1876 néos (Gr. νέος), new, i.e., a “new” Ceratodus Agassiz 1838, a Triassic genus in which N. forsteri had been described: cerato-, from kéras (Gr. κεράς), horn, and odoús (Gr. ὀδούς), tooth, referring to their prominent, shark-like tooth plates

Neoceratodus forsteri (Krefft 1870) in honor of (and “in justice to”) friend and politician William Forster (1818–1882), Minister of Lands, New South Wales, who presented two specimens (collected by his cousin, William McCord, an amateur naturalist) of this “great amphibian” to the Australian Museum; the “in justice” comment reflects Krefft’s amends for doubting his longtime friend, who owned large tracts of land near the type locality in Queensland and had tantalized Krefft with tales of a “fish” with a cartilaginous backbone