Woodwardella patellifrons was a mackerel-grade predator from the London Clay with a compact but specialised skull. The upper jaw was non-protrusible and the front of the palate included a broad spatulate vomer. Large scales covered the opercular region, while the skull roof carried characteristic fossae beside the orbit.

Its jaw construction indicates a fish that captured prey with a relatively rigid mouth rather than the highly protrusible feeding mechanism seen in many later teleosts. Small fishes and other nekton are plausible prey from the scombrid-grade anatomy, but the precise diet remains inferred. The species preserves an instructive combination of primitive and specialised features in an early pelagic predator.