''Eekaulostomus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of marine fish from the

Paleocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), ...

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It contains one species, ''E. cuevasae'', and is the only member of the family Eekaulostomidae. ''Eekaulostomus'' was a syngnathiform, a member of the same order as modern

trumpetfish The trumpetfishes are three species of highly specialized, tubularly-elongated marine fishes in the genus ''Aulostomus'', of the monogeneric family Aulostomidae. The trumpetfishes are members of the order Syngnathiformes, together with the Syngn ...

cornetfish The cornetfishes or flutemouths are a small family, the Fistulariidae, of extremely elongated fish in the order Syngnathiformes. The family consists of a single genus, ''Fistularia'', with four species, found worldwide in tropical and subtropical ...

pipefish Pipefishes or pipe-fishes (Syngnathinae) are a subfamily of small fishes, which, together with the seahorses and seadragons ('' Phycodurus'' and '' Phyllopteryx''), form the family Syngnathidae. Description Pipefish look like straight-bodied s ...

, and seahorses. It can be distinguished from other syngnathiforms by the prominent scutes covering its body, giving it an armored appearance. Its exact phylogenetic placement among the sygnanthiforms is debated, although it is known to belong to the "long-snouted" group (

Syngnathoidei The Syngnathiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes that includes the leafy seadragons, sea moths, trumpetfishes and seahorses, among others.FishBase (2005)Order Summary for Syngnathiformes Version of 2005-FEB-15. Retrieved 19 Aug 2008. Th ...

); it was initially recovered as allied with the trumpetfish superfamily ( Aulostomoidea), but more recent studies have found it to be more closely related to the pipefish superfamily (

Syngnathoidea Syngnathoidea is a superfamily of the pipefish order Syngnathiformes. It is divided into two families, the speciose pipefish Syngnathidae, which includes the sea horses and monotypic Solenostomidae, the ghost pipefishes, which has just five spec ...

). The only known specimen of ''Eekaulostomus'' was found in exposures of the Tenejapa-Lacandón Unit in the Belisario Domínguez quarry near the ancient

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

city of

Palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamha ("big water" or "big waters"), was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD ...

. It inhabited the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

region in the

Early Paleocene The Danian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Paleocene Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series, of the Paleogene Period or system (stratigraphy), System, and of the Cenozoic Era or Erathem. The beginnin ...

, just a few million years after the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the K–T extinction, was the extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth approximately 66 million years ago. The event cau ...

. The relative proximity of the locality to the

Chicxulub crater The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo (not the larger coastal town of Chicxulub Puerto). I ...

indicates that marine ecosystems had likely recovered rapidly after the event, and that syngnathiformes are an ancient clade. Eekaulostomus recon

The genus name originates from ''eek'', the

word for star, and '' Aulostomus''; this references its star-shaped scutes and close resemblance to the latter genus. The species name honors Mexican anthropologist

Martha Cuevas García Martha (Aramaic: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem and witnessing Jesus ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q100951771 Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Paleocene fish Danian genera Fossils of Mexico Fossil taxa described in 2016