Paranotothenia is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Nototheniidae, the notothens or cod icefishes.

Paranotothenia was first formally described as a genus in 1976 by the Soviet ichthyologist Arkady Vladimirovich Balushkin, it was originally a monotypic genus with Gadus magellanicus, which had been described in 1801 by Johann Reinhold Forster with the type locality given as the Straits of Magellan.

They have a wide head with a short snout and a mouth which reaches as far back as the middle of the eye.

The wide cranium has a rough upper surface with lots of crests, bumps and pits.

The head is largely unscaled, although there are small patches of scales to the rear of the eyes.