Eolophotes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Eolophotes Temporal range: Middle Eocene, | |
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| E. lenis holotype, scale bar = 5 mm | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Lampriformes |
| Family: | Lophotidae |
| Genus: | †Eolophotes Daniltshenko, 1980 |
| Species: | †E. lenis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Eolophotes lenis (Daniltshenko, 1962) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Eolophotes ("dawn Lophotes") is an extinct genus of prehistoric crestfish that inhabited the northeastern Tethys Ocean during the Eocene. It contains a single species, E. lenis, known from the Lutetian-aged Dabakhan Formation of Georgia. It is a diminutive, poorly-known species, but represents the oldest fossil record of the group.[1][2][3] However, Brownstein & Near (2023) found the Lophotidae to be potentially non-monophyletic, and Eolophotes to be a member of the Taeniosomi with uncertain placement.[4]
