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Eospinus

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Species of fish

Eospinus
Temporal range: Earliest Ypresian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Life restoration of E. daniltshenkoi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Tetraodontiformes
Family: †Bolcabalistidae
Santini & Tyler, 2002
Genus: †Eospinus
Tyler & Bannikov, 1992
Species: †E. daniltshenkoi
Binomial name
†Eospinus daniltshenkoi
Tyler & Bannikov, 1992

Eospinus ("dawn spine") is an extinct genus of bizarre marine tetraodontiform fish from the Eocene. It is known from the earliest Ypresian-aged Danata Formation lagerstatten of Turkmenistan. The species name honors paleoichthyologist Pavel G. Daniltshenko (also Danilchenko), who described numerous fossil fish from Russia and neighboring countries.

Eospinus had a highly unusual appearance. It had four dorsal spines, three of which were on the anterior end of its dorsal side, and the first spine being placed between and below the eyes, almost like a long nose. It also had a pair of spines near the base of its caudal peduncle, and a spine in front of the anal fin.

In 2002, and confirmed again in 2003, Santini and Tyler erected the family Bolcabalistidae to contain both Eospinus and the genus Bolcabalistes from Monte Bolca as close relatives of both triggerfishes and boxfishes. The similar Moclaybalistes of Ypresian Denmark was originally also placed in Bolcabalistidae, too, in 2002, but then move it into its own monotypic family of Moclaybalistidae.

Eospinus inhabited the northeastern Tethys Ocean. Its morphology suggests a slow-moving benthic lifestyle likely associated with reefs, as with many modern tetraodontiforms.

See also

Sources

  1. ^ Santini, Francesco; Tyler, James C. (2003). "A phylogeny of the families of fossil and extant tetraodontiform fishes (Acanthomorpha, Tetraodontiformes), Upper Cretaceous to Recent". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 139 (4): 565–617. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2003.00088.x.
  2. "PBDB Taxon". paleobiodb.org. Retrieved 2025-01-21.
  3. ^ Tyler, James C.; Bannikov, Alexandre F. (1992). "Remarkable New Genus of Tetraodontiform Fish with Features of Both Balistids and Ostraciids from the Eocene of Turkmenistan". Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology (72): 1–14. doi:10.5479/si.00810266.72.1. ISSN 0081-0266.
  4. Bannikov, A. F.; Erebakan, I. G. (2023-10-01). "On the Evolution of Some Groups of Marine Bony Fishes in the Cenozoic of the Tethys and Paratethys". Paleontological Journal. 57 (5): 475–490. Bibcode:2023PalJ...57..475B. doi:10.1134/S0031030123050015. ISSN 1555-6174.
  5. Tyler, JAMES C., and F. R. A. N. C. E. S. C. O. Santini. "Review and reconstructions of the tetraodontiform fishes from the Eocene of Monte Bolca, Italy, with comments on related Tertiary taxa." Studi e ricerche sui giacimenti terziari di Bolca 9 (2002): 47-119.
Taxon identifiers
Eospinus daniltshenkoi


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