The first specimens were found from the Danata Formation Lagerstätten, of the Thanetian epoch of Turkmenistan, where they were originally thought to be smaller or juvenile individuals of the true louvar, Luvarus necopinatus.
More recently, D.E.G. Briggs and colleagues have made detailed studies of decay with the prime aim of understanding the profound halt to these processes that is required by exceptional preservation in lagerstätten.
Eothynnus salmonens is an extinct species of prehistoric jackfish that lived during the lower Eocene of what is now the Isle of Sheppey (as a part of the London Clay Lagerstatten.
A second, as yet undescribed species is from the Fuller's Earth formation Lagerstatten in the Barmer District, of Ypresian Rajasthan, India.