Enniskillenus

Enniskillenus is an extinct genus of prehistoric billfish from the Eocene of Europe. It contains a single species, E. radiatus from the Early Eocene-aged London Clay of England.^[1][2]

Enniskillenus Temporal range: Early Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Carangiformes
Suborder:	Menoidei
Superfamily:	Xiphioidea
Family:	†Palaeorhynchidae
Genus:	†Enniskillenus Casier, 1966
Species:	†E. radiatus
Binomial name
†Enniskillenus radiatus Casier, 1966 ex Agassiz, 1833

The species was first improperly named without a description (as Ptychocephalus radiatus) by Agassiz (1833), and later assigned as an indeterminate member of Palaeorhynchus by Woodward (1901).^[3] It was properly described by Casier in 1966,^[3] who placed it in the new genus Enniskillenus, named in honor of William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, who collected fossil fish and donated specimens to the British Museum.^[4]

Although often placed in the primitive billfish family Palaeorhynchidae, most specimens of Enniskillenus do not preserve enough traits for a refined classification, though their vertebral morphology and rostra confirm that they are at least billfish.^[3]