Eolactoria
Encyclopedia
Eolactoria sorbinii is an extinct prehistoric boxfish
Boxfish
Ostraciidae is a family of squared, bony fish belonging to the order Tetraodontiformes, closely related to the pufferfishes and filefishes. Fish in the family are known variously as boxfishes, cofferfishes, cowfishes and trunkfishes...

 that lived during the Lutetian
Lutetian
The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage or age in the Eocene. It spans the time between and . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it is sometimes referred to as the Middle Eocene subepoch...

 epoch of the middle Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...

, in Monte Bolca
Monte Bolca
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....

. It had two pairs of long spines, one over each eye, and one pair beneath the anal and caudal fins, arranged very similarly to those possessed by the modern genus Lactoria (e.g., "cowfish"), but were, in comparison, much longer. E. sorbinii had a 5th spine between the two eye-spines, arranged and looking very much like a nose.

The only known fossil specimen is about 5 centimeters in length.

See also

  • Proaracana
    Proaracana
    Proaracana dubia is an extinct, prehistoric aracanid boxfish that lived during the Lutetian of middle Eocene Monte Bolca.-See also:* Eolactoria* Prehistoric fish* List of prehistoric bony fish...

    another boxfish that lived in Monte Bolca
  • Oligolactoria
    Oligolactoria
    Oligolactoria bubiki is an extinct prehistoric boxfish that lived during the Rupelian epoch from the Middle Oligocene of Moravia, Czech Republic.In life, it would have strongly resembled a modern cowfish .-See also:...

    a possible descendant from the Oligocene
    Oligocene
    The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...

  • Prehistoric fish
    Prehistoric fish
    Prehistoric fish refers to early fish that are known only from fossil records. They are the earliest known vertebrates, and include the first and extinct fish that lived through the Cambrian to the Tertiary. The study of prehistoric fish is called paleoichthyology...

  • List of prehistoric bony fish
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