''Eolophotes'' ("dawn '' Lophotes''") is an extinct genus of prehistoric

crestfish Crestfishes, family Lophotidae, are lampriform fishes found in most oceans. It consists of two extant and four extinct genera. They are elongated, ribbon-like fishes, silver in color, found in deep tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. Thei ...

that inhabited the northeastern

Tethys Ocean The Tethys Ocean ( ; ), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean during much of the Mesozoic Era and early-mid Cenozoic Era. It was the predecessor to the modern Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Eurasia ...

during the Eocene. It contains a single species, ''E. lenis'', known from the

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage (stratigraphy), stage or age (geology), age in the Eocene. It spans the time between . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it ...

-aged Dabakhan Formation of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. It is a diminutive, poorly-known species, but represents the oldest fossil record of the group. However, Brownstein & Near (2023) found the Lophotidae to be potentially non-monophyletic, and ''Eolophotes'' to be a member of the

Taeniosomi Lampriformes is an order of ray-finned fish. Members are collectively called lamprids (which is more properly used for the Lampridae) or lampriforms, and unite such open-ocean and partially deep-sea Teleostei as the crestfishes, oarfish, opahs, ...

with uncertain placement.

External links

''Eolophotes''
at the

Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...

{{Lampriformes-stub

† 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 ...

Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Lutetian genera Eocene fish of Europe Eocene fish of Asia Fossils of Georgia (country) Fossil taxa described in 1980