| Eoscatophagus Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Fossil specimen, Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Acanthuriformes |
| Family: | Scatophagidae |
| Genus: | † Eoscatophagus Tyler & Sorbini, 1999 |
| Species: | †E. frontalis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Eoscatophagus frontalis (Agassiz, 1839) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Eoscatophagus ("dawn Scatophagus ") is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish, in the family Scatophagidae, known from the Eocene. [1] It contains a single species, E. frontalis, known from the Monte Bolca site of Italy. [2]
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 argus) itself, before being described as its own species within Scatophagus by Agassiz (1839). [3] It was moved to its own genus, Eoscatophagus, in 1999. [4]
As the earliest known member of the Scatophagidae, it is often used for calibrating phylogenies of marine fish evolution. [5] [6]