Eocoelopoma curvatum

Eocoelopoma curvatum

Woodward, 1901

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

Representative Specimens

Selected reference specimens illustrating this species from different geological units and fossil sites.

Identification Examples

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Summary

Eocoelopoma curvatum was a more elongate-headed member of the London Clay scombrid radiation. Its jaws carried slender, sharp teeth, indicating a grasping predator of fishes or other soft-bodied nekton. The large ossified eye structures and streamlined cranial proportions suggest an active, visually oriented marine fish, although swimming behaviour cannot be reconstructed directly from the skull alone.

Three-dimensional specimens show fine curved ornament on the frontal bones and a specialised fossa beside the orbit. Compared with the compact head of some congeners, the skull is noticeably longer relative to its width, giving E. curvatum a distinctive cranial profile within this early mackerel-like assemblage.

Quick Identification

Look for: an elongate scombrid skull about one and two-thirds times longer than wide, with fine curved-line ornament on the frontals, bluntly rounded anterior frontals, large sclerotic ossicles and slender sharp jaw teeth.

Diagnostic Features

  • Skull is elongate, approximately 1.7 times longer than wide.
  • Frontal bones anterior to the orbital fossa are densely ornamented with fine curved lines.
  • Anterior ends of the frontals are blunt to rounded rather than pointed.
  • Jaw teeth are slender, elongate and sharply pointed.
  • Sclerotic ossicles are large and strongly developed around the orbit.

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

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
10 August 2026 Reviewed by Sam Harris