Austroptyctodus gardineri is a small ptyctodontid placoderm fish from the Upper Devonian Gogo Formation of Western Australia.

Long (1997)[2] redescribed the German material and found major differences in the skull roof pattern so assigned it to a new genus, Austroptyctodus.

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.

[3] Austroptyctodus fossil individuals have ostracods recovered in the abdominal region.

These ostracods were related to nocturnal ones, suggesting it hunted at night.