''Eozanclus'' ("dawn ''

Zanclus Zanclus (Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: ...

''") was an extinct genus 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 ...

, closely related to the modern Moorish idol, that lived during

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. brevirostris'' that lived during the late

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

epoch in what is now Monte Bolca, northern Italy. It is one of two known fossil Moorish idols from Monte Bolca alongside '' Angiolinia''. It differs from its living relative by having a much shorter snout. It was first erroneously figured by Volta (1796) as a specimen of the Moorish idol itself (then known as ''Chaetodon canescens''). It was later officially described 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 ...

(1835) as its own species within ''Zanclus'', before being moved to its own genus in 1975. Eozanclus brevirostris

References

† {{acanthuroidei-stub Prehistoric percomorph genera Monotypic prehistoric ray-finned fish genera Eocene fish of Europe Ypresian genera Fossils of Italy Fossil taxa described in 1975