Eoscatophagus

Eoscatophagus ("dawn Scatophagus") is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish, in the family Scatophagidae, known from the Eocene.^[1] It contains a single species, E. frontalis, known from the Monte Bolca site of Italy.^[2]

Eoscatophagus Temporal range: Early Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Fossil specimen, Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acanthuriformes
Family:	Scatophagidae
Genus:	†Eoscatophagus Tyler & Sorbini, 1999
Species:	†E. frontalis
Binomial name
†Eoscatophagus frontalis (Agassiz, 1839)
Synonyms
†Scatophagus frontalis Agassiz, 1839

It is the earliest scatophagid known from the fossil record. It was originally erroneously identified by Volta (1796) as a specimen of the spotted scat (Scatophagus argus, then known as Chaetodon argus) itself, before being described as its own species within Scatophagus by Agassiz (1839).^[3] It was moved to its own genus, Eoscatophagus, in 1999.^[4]

Fossil specimen

As the earliest known member of the Scatophagidae, it is often used for calibrating phylogenies of marine fish evolution.^[5][6]