Monte Bolca is a lagerstätte near Verona, Italy that was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the Eocene.
The Zeiformes are a small order of exclusively marine ray-finned fishes most notable for the dories, a group of common food fish. The order consists of about 33 species in six extant families, mostly deep-sea types. The boarfishes (Caproidae) have been previously included in this order though they are currently included in the Perciformes.
The Gempylidae are a family of scombriform ray-finned fishes commonly known as snake mackerels or escolars. The family includes about 25 species.
Mene rhombea is an extinct perciform fish belonging to the family Menidae. During the Middle Eocene, about 48 to 40 mya, these fishes lived in the Tethys Ocean, a large tropical sea in the area corresponding to the current Mediterranean. This ocean was extended between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia. At this time, where Monte Bolca is today, M. rhombea, and its relative, M. oblonga, lived in a tropical lagoon.
Mene purdyi an extinct species of ray-finned fish in the genus Mene, from Late Thanetian-aged marine deposits in northern Peru. M. purdyi is currently known only from a single skull and a few post-cranial bones. M. purdyi is among the largest, if not the largest, members of the genus, as the skull suggests that it would have been over 40 centimetres (16 in) in life. The living species, M. maculata, by comparison, grows to an average length of 18 centimetres (7.1 in).
Blochius is an extinct genus of billfish from the Eocene. It is only known from the Monte Bolca deposits in Italy, and was likely restricted to shallow, tropical waters of the Tethys Ocean.
Bathysoma is an extinct genus of marine lampriform ray-finned fish from the early-mid Paleocene. It contains a single species, B. lutkeni from Sweden. Its fossils are common in exposures of the Danian København Limestone Formation at Limhamns kalkbrott, one of the largest quarries in northern Europe. A single specimen is also known from an erratic boulder from the Selandian Lellinge Greensand Formation of southern Sweden.
Mene oblonga is a species of ray-finned fish that first appeared in the Monte Bolca Lagerstatten during the Lutetian epoch of the Eocene. For a menid, it has a very shallow body, especially in comparison with the sympatric Mene rhombea. Its fossils are very rare in Monte Bolca. A single fossil from the early Oligocene, referred to as "Mene oblonga var. pusilla," was found in Chiavon, Italy.
Euzaphlegidae is a family of extinct escolar-like ray-finned fish closely related to the snake mackerels. Fossils of euzaphlegids are found from Paleocene to Late Miocene-aged marine strata of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains, India, Iran, Turkmenistan, Italy, and Southern California.
Aeoliscoides is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived from the early Eocene. It is known from a single species, A. longirostris, from the famous Monte Bolca site of Italy. It was a member of Centriscidae, making it a relative of modern shrimpfish and snipefish. Its name references its close resemblance to the extant shrimpfish genus Aeoliscus.
Berybolcensis is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish that lived in the early Eocene. It contains a single species, B. leptacanthus, from the Monte Bolca lagerstatten of Italy. It was a member of the Holocentridae, making it related to modern squirrelfish and soldierfish, although it was more basal than either, and is thought to have diverged from their common ancestor around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. It is thought to be related to Tenuicentrum, another basal holocentrid from the same formation.
Eogavialis is an extinct genus of eusuchian crocodylomorph, usually regarded as a gavialoid crocodylian. It superficially resembles Tomistoma schlegelii, the extant false gharial, and consequently material from the genus was originally referred to Tomistoma. Indeed, it was not until 1982 that the name Eogavialis was constructed after it was realised that the specimens were from a more basal form.
Carangodes is an extinct genus of prehistoric ray-finned fish that lived during the early Eocene. It contains a single species, C. bicornis, from the famous Monte Bolca site in Italy. It is the only known member of the extinct perciform family Carangodidae.
Eoplatax is an extinct genus of prehistoric spadefish that lived during the Lutetian of Monte Bolca. They are closely allied to the extant genus, Platax, more commonly known as "batfish."
Bregmacerina is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish, most likely a codlet, that lived during the early part of the Miocene epoch. It contains a single species, B. antiqua, from the Burdigalian Sakaraul Horizon Formation of North Caucasus, Russia.
Diaphyodus is an extinct genus of prehistoric marine ray-finned fish, generally considered a drumfish, from the Late Paleocene and Eocene, and potentially to the mid-Oligocene of Europe and North America.
Sparnodus is an extinct genus of prehistoric perciform fish in the family Sparidae. Species of this genus were nektonic carnivores. These fishes lived in the Cenozoic Era, in the Oligocene and Paleocene.
Palimphyes is an extinct genus of marine ray-finned fish known from the Paleogene period. It was a euzaphlegid, an extinct family of scombroid fish related to the escolars and snake mackerels.
Mene maculata, the moonfish, is the only extant member of the genus Mene and of the family Menidae. The body is highly compressed laterally and very deep vertically. The ventral profile is steep, with a sharp ventral edge. The caudal (tail) fin is deeply forked. The mouth is small and protrusible. The body is silvery below and blue-green on the back, with three to four rows of dark gray spots on the upper side. The first two rays of the pelvic fin are greatly elongated, forming a prominent backward-pointing process on the underside of the fish.
Carangiformes is an order of ray-finned fishes that is part of a sister clade to the Ovalentaria, the other orders in the clade being the Synbranchiformes, Anabantiformes, Istiophoriformes, and Pleuronectiformes. The Carangiformes have been long regarded as a monotypic order with only the family Carangidae within it by some authorities, and the other current families within the order have been previously classified as part of the wider order Perciformes. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classify six families within Carangiformes, with other authorities expanding the order to include up to 30 families.
Mene sp, from Fur Formation, Denmark
Mene rhombea, from Bolca
Mene oblonga and Mene rhombea restorations
