The dorsal and anal fins were large, positioned opposite from each other, and shifted back, close to the tail.

They also had several characteristic skeletal traits, such as a hatchet-shaped preopercle, a series of fulcra (thin spiny scales) fringing the fins, a reduced number of branchiostegal rays (typically just one), and a snout ornamented with tubercles.

[1][2][3] The maxilla has small teeth and is strongly connected to the preopercle; this would have allowed a deep gape to assist in ram feeding.

[1] Some studies draw comparisons to 'perleidiforms' or ptycholepids, while others consider redfieldiiforms to be early neopterygians related to pholidopleuriforms.

[3] By the Late Triassic they had become a major component of freshwater ecosystems in western Laurasia (North America and Morocco).