''Eoscatophagus'' ("dawn ''

Scatophagus ''Scatophagus'' is a genus of ray-finned fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Scatophagidae. They are found in the Indo-Pacific region. Species in this genus are referred as ''spotted scats''. Taxonomy ''Scatophagus'' was first forma ...

''") 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

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, in the family

Scatophagidae Scatophagidae, the scats are a small family of ray-finned fishes in the order Perciformes. They are found in the Indo-Pacific region but one species has been introduced elsewhere. Taxonomy Scatophagidae was first formally described as a family ...

, known from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

. It contains a single species, ''E. frontalis'', known from the

Monte Bolca Monte Bolca is an Ypresian, Early Eocene-aged geologic site located near Verona, Italy, Verona, Italy. A ''Konservat-Lagerstätte'', it contains an extremely well-preserved and diverse marine biota, including the most diverse fish fauna of any Ce ...

site of Italy. 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 ''Chaetodon'' is a tropical fish genus in the family (biology), family Chaetodontidae. Like their relatives, they are known as "butterflyfish". This genus is by far the largest among the Chaetodontidae, with about 90 living species included here, ...

argus'') itself, before being described as its own species within ''

'' by

Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

(1839). It was moved to its own genus, ''Eoscatophagus'', in 1999. Scatophagus frontalis

As the earliest known member of the Scatophagidae, it is often used for calibrating phylogenies of marine fish evolution.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q97371039 Scatophagidae Prehistoric percomorph genera Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Ypresian genera Eocene fish of Europe Fossils of Italy Fossil taxa described in 1999 Taxa named by James C. Tyler