Pristigenys bella is an otolith-based London Clay fish historically interpreted as a bigeye relative. Bigeyes are marine predators with large eyes and often feed on crustaceans and smaller fishes, so that ecology was once a natural model for the fossil. However, later work linking otoliths preserved inside London Clay skulls has raised questions about whether this otolith really belongs in Pristigenys, so any reconstruction based on living priacanthids should be treated as provisional.

The fossil itself remains a useful record of a distinctive acanthomorph otolith morphotype. Its scientific importance now lies as much in testing the relationship between isolated otolith taxonomy and skull-based taxa as in representing a named ecological group.