A nearly complete specimen of a sarcopterygian fish from the Lower Permian (Autunian) of the Saar-Nahe Basin, southwest Germany, is described as a new genus and species of megalichthyids, Palatinichthys laticeps. It is characterized by the following unique list of characters: (1) lacrimal forms lateral margin of external naris, (2) postparietal short with respect to parietal, (3) tabular broad and shorter than supratemporal, (4) anterior margin of median extrascapular very narrow, (5) supraorbitals short, thus parietal and intertemporal participating in formation of orbital margin, (6) distance between external naris and orbit very short, and (7) squamosal abbreviated and deep. A phylogenetic analysis finds a monophyletic Megalichthyidae consisting of two clades, (Palatinichthys nov. gen.+Ectosteorhachis) and [(Megalichthys+Sengoerichthys)+Cladarosymblema)]. The sister taxa Palatinichthys nov. gen. and Ectosteorhachis share a short posterior skull table as a derived character, whereas Megalichthys, Sengoerichthys and Cladarosymblema retain an elongate postorbital region of the skull, regarded as plesiomorphic for “osteolepiforms”. After their nearly worldwide distribution in the Late Devonian and Carboniferous, megalichthyids had become rare in the Permian and have so far been reported only from North America (Ectosteorhachis) and Norway (?Megalichthys). Palatinichthys nov. gen. is a further representative within the European-North American equatorial distribution of megalichthyids during the Permian. It was probably not a common inhabitant of the large Saar-Nahe lakes. Rather, it might have lived in a different habitat within the same general area, such as deltaic streams or rivers.