Eocoelopoma colei

Eocoelopoma colei

Woodward, 1901

Common name Mackerel / tuna
Fossil group Bony Fish
Order Scombriformes
Family Scombridae
Genus Eocoelopoma
Taxonomic status Accepted
Geological age Ypresian

Summary

Eocoelopoma colei was a small scombrid-grade predator from the London Clay. Its skull was compact, with stout conical teeth in the jaws and finer teeth on the palate. This mixture indicates a fish equipped to seize small fishes or other mobile prey rather than crush shells. The compact head and predatory dentition fit an active marine lifestyle.

The species is unusually well characterised by three-dimensional cranial anatomy. The frontal bones and opercular series carry distinctive sculpture, while a specialised fossa near the orbit is part of the skull-roof pattern that defines Eocoelopoma. These features help reconstruct an early radiation of mackerel-like fishes before the modern scombrid body plan was fully stabilised.

Quick Identification

Look for: a small, broad scombrid skull almost as long as it is wide, with irregularly wrinkled opercular bones, a deeply depressed temporal groove and stout conical jaw teeth; the frontals are pointed anteriorly and only weakly ornamented.

Diagnostic Features

  • Skull is compact, with length only slightly exceeding width.
  • Preoperculum and associated opercular bones carry conspicuous irregular wrinkles.
  • Temporal or supratemporal groove is strongly depressed posteriorly.
  • Anterior ends of the frontals are pointed rather than blunt.
  • Jaw teeth are stout, conical and relatively short, while vomerine teeth are much finer.

Fossil Details

Preservation
London Clay fish skulls are commonly incomplete, compressed, pyritised or enclosed in concretions. Thin cranial margins and projecting processes are easily lost, and separated bones can be difficult to orient; species-level identification is strongest when several adjoining diagnostic bones are preserved together.

Recorded Fossil Sites

No fossil-site occurrences have yet been recorded for this species.

References

  • Casier, E. (1966). Faune ichthyologique du London Clay. 496 pp.. Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), London View reference
  • Friedman, M.; Beckett, H. T.; Close, R. A.; Johanson, Z. (2016). The English Chalk and London Clay: two remarkable British bony fish Lagerstätten. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 430(1), 165–200. Geological Society of London, London View reference
  • Monsch, K. A. (2005). Revision of the scombroid fishes from the Cenozoic of England. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 95(3–4), 445–489 View reference
Last Reviewed
20 August 2026 Reviewed by Sam Harris