First record of non-marine ostracods from the Paleogene “hamadian deposits” of Méridja area, west of Bechar (southwestern Algeria)

Autor(en)
Sid Ahmed Hammouda, Benjamin Sames, Mohammed Adaci, Mustapha Bensalah
Abstrakt

A new non-marine ostracod fauna from the Paleogene “hamadian deposits” outcropping west of Bechar (southwestern Algeria) has been recovered from lacustrine to fluvial deposits of the Oued Méridja section and fluvial deposits on the southern edge of the Hamada de Méridja section. Recently, these sections have been dated as late Thanetian – early Ypresian (latest Paleocene to earliest Eocene) and Ypresian – earliest Lutetian (early to earliest middle Eocene), respectively, based on charophytes. The associated ostracod fauna recovered consists of relatively mostly moderately to badly preserved specimens and comprises 14 taxa, none of which could be identified to species level in view of its poor state of preservation; we have nevertheless been able to identify and describe the following taxa: Herpetocypris sp., Cyprinotus? sp., Heterocypris? sp. 1 and sp. 2, Cypris? sp., Ilyocypris sp., Cytheroidea indet. sp. 1 and sp. 2, Limnocytheridae indet. sp. 1, Cypridoidea indet. sp. 1, Cyprididae indet. sp. 1, and Ostracoda indet. sp. 1, 2 and 3. Only Heterocypris sp. 1 occurs in both sections. Although the fauna can as yet not be related to the few other contemporaneous faunas reported from the wider palaeogeographic area, it adds important new information to our poor knowledge on Eocene non-marine ostracods in North Africa and southern Europe. The Méridja sections and area are promising regarding the discovery of more, better preserved material and further studies, and one main limitation to the correlation of the fauna is the hitherto insufficient taxonomic knowledge on many faunal elements of Eocene non-marine ostracods to which our section contributes considerably.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Paläontologie, Institut für Geologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Université Abou Bekr Belkaid de Tlemcen
Journal
Annales de paléontologie
Band
104
Seiten
27-44
Anzahl der Seiten
18
ISSN
0753-3969
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annpal.2017.12.001
Publikationsdatum
2018
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105123 Stratigraphie, 105118 Paläontologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Palaeontology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 14 – Leben unter Wasser
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/d30bc809-787f-4c24-b1b4-6337250534c9