| Enniskillenus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Carangiformes |
| Suborder: | Menoidei |
| Superfamily: | Xiphioidea |
| Family: | † Palaeorhynchidae |
| Genus: | † Enniskillenus Casier, 1966 |
| Species: | †E. radiatus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Enniskillenus radiatus Casier, 1966 ex Agassiz, 1833 | |
Enniskillenus is an extinct genus of prehistoric billfish from the Eocene of Europe. It contains a single species, E. radiatus from the Early Eocene-aged London Clay of England. [1] [2]
The species was first improperly named without a description (as Ptychocephalus radiatus) by Agassiz (1833), and later assigned as an indeterminate member of Palaeorhynchus by Woodward (1901). [3] It was properly described by Casier in 1966, [3] who placed it in the new genus Enniskillenus, named in honor of William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, who collected fossil fish and donated specimens to the British Museum. [4]
Although often placed in the primitive billfish family Palaeorhynchidae, most specimens of Enniskillenus do not preserve enough traits for a refined classification, though their vertebral morphology and rostra confirm that they are at least billfish. [3]
