Synophyrs hopei was first described by Louis Agassiz in a paper in 1845 (see citation at bottom) based on a specimen held at Oxford University Museum. As this specimen has relatively poor preservation, Agassiz didn’t assign this to any family and as such, for the last 180 years, has sat as a fairly dubious taxa. However, two more recent discoveries of well-preserved specimens (photographed and scanned below) match the very distinct cranial ornamentation of Agassiz’s original specimen and could represent two better preserved specimens on this London Clay species. The one found my Tony Mitchell has now been kindly donated to the Natural History Museum in London and experts who have examined this have suggested it is a representative of the Serranidae family. I’m hopeful more research will follow on this.