Advances in ostracodological research -Selected papers from the

17th International Symposium on Ostracoda

Elsa Gliozzi1, Nevio Pugliese

2and Radovan Pipik

3, Editors

1Department of Science, Roma Tre University, L.go S. Leonardo Murialdo, 1, 00146 Rome, Italy2Department of Mathematics and Geoscience, Trieste University, Via E. Weiss 2, 34127 Trieste, Italy

3Geologický ústav, Slovenská akadémia vied, Ïumbierska 1, SK-974 01 Banská Bystrica, Slovakiaemail: elsa.gliozzi@uniroma3.it

The nine papers collected in this special issue of Micro-paleontology are a selection of contributions on presented at the17th International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO), which washeld in Rome, Italy, on 23rd-26th July 2013, and attended by 141scientists from 29 countries (see text-figure 1).

Since 1963, when the 1st ISO took place in Naples (Italy), thisfour-year recurring event has brought together researchers fromall over the world who specialize in living and fossil ostracodsand their applications in biology and geology (Danielopol et al.2015). Scientific sessions dealing with paleoenvironment,paleobiogeography, paleoclimatology, biostratigraphy, genet-ics, taxonomy and evolution of ostracoda are included in theprogram of every meeting, attended by the entire ostracodo-logical community.

Ostracoda are bivalve microcrustaceans with a carapace madeof low-Mg calcite, known since the Ordovician (Siveter et al.,2014) to occur in every aquatic habitat, from hyperhaline tofreshwater, and even in semi-terrestrial humid environmentssuch as damp soil or moss. They are mainly benthonic and theiroccurrence is strictly controlled by such parameters as tempera-ture, depth, salinity, substrate, aquatic vegetation, nutrients andpollution (Rodriguez-Lazaro and Ruiz-Muñoz 2012). Withsuch notable sensitivity to environmental changes, they are in-valuable proxies for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic re-construction of the past. Moreover, their valves of biogeniccarbonate secreted in a very short time are eminently suitablefor geochemical analyses of stable isotopes and trace elementsthat accurately reflect past hydrochemistry (Ito et al. 2003).

In this special issue of Micropaleontology, the first three papersare mainly taxonomic. Cabral et al. illustrate a brackish-marineSinemurian ostracod fauna from the Coimbra Formation (S.Pedro de Moel, Portugal) made of 14 species and describe 3new species. After a detailed taxonomic study, the authors havebeen able to reconstruct brackish and marine oscillations of theEarly Jurassic palaeoenvironment. Carignano and Cusminskyanalyze the family Limnocytheridae in Campanian-Maas-trichtian brackish to freshwater sediments of the Allen andLoncoche Formations (Neuquén Basin, Argentina), erecting 5new species and providing new paleogeographic and biostrati-graphic data on this evolutionary successful family in the Meso-zoic. Schornikov re-describes the living brackish species

Cyprideis pedashenkoi from Lake Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan), witha discuission of the differences from the ubiquitous livingcosmopolite Cyprideis torosa, and concludes that the lake hostsa highly endemic ostracod assemblage.

Five papers show the important role of Ostracoda as proxies inpalaeoenvironmental reconstruction of shallow marine environ-ments with five case-studies. �afak et al. analyze the trans-gressive event that occurred during the Eocene in the CentralSakarya Basin (NW Anatolia/Turkey), analyzing the occur-rence of 35 ostracod species with different ecological require-ment. Tuncer and Tuno�lu illustrate the paleoenvironmentalcharacters of an Early Pleistocene freshwater permanentwaterbody recorded by the sedimentation of the Fevzipa�a For-mation (Ayd�n, western Turkey). In this paper the authors useostracods also as proxies to estimaste the age of the formation.Tsourou et al. show the progressive rising of the Tardiglacial-Holocene sea-level in the Southern Evoikos Gulf (WesternAegean Sea, Greece), reconstructing the paleodepths on thebase of different bathymetrically well determined ostracod as-semblages. Frezza et al. and Salvi et al. use ostracods, coupledwith foraminifers, as environmental proxy for the recognition ofwater quality of the Tyrrhenian Sea, respectively in the South-ern Tuscany continental shelf (Northern Tyrrhenian Sea) and inthe area of the Ex-Military Arsenal of the La Maddalena Har-bour (Sardinia, Italy). In the first paper the authors show the in-fluence of organic matter enrichment on the composition andfrequency of ostracod assemblages; in the second one thechanges in biotic indices, presence of tolerant species and de-velopment of abnormal tests in Foraminifera and Ostracoda dueto pollution, presumably from military equipment and arma-ment, with high content of As, Hg, Zn, Cu, Pd, Cd and hydro-carbon (chain length C>12).

The last paper, by Wang et al., illustrates the application ofostracods in biostratigraphy, presenting a chronostratigraphicframe of the Early Cretaceous based on nonmarine ostracod oc-curring in the western Liaoning area, NE China. After a carefultaxonomic revision, the authors use ostracods as proxies for theage determination and correlation of scattered lacustrine basinsof the region famous by its sites of exceptional preservation.

It should be clear from the collection of papers grouped in thepresent volume that a wide range of scientific topics can be in-

Micropaleontology, vol. 61, nos. 1–2, text-figure 1, pp. 1–2, 2015 1

vestigated through ostracods. Some of them evidence the re-fined role of the ostracods to define the natural climate andenvironmental changes occurred through the time. Therefore,they could become excellent tools for defining how the animalbiodiversity may respond to man-induced environmental andclimate changes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Editors are deeply grateful to Dr John Van Couvering, Edi-tor-in-Chief of Micropaleontology Press, who kindly agreed topublish this special volume, as well as to all the colleagues whowere involved in the hard task of peer-reviewing the individualpapers.

Special thanks go to the Organizing and Scientific Commetteeof the 17th ISO, to all participants and to the Department of Sci-ence of Roma Tre University that made it possible, for the sev-enteenth time, to bring together ostracodologists from the entireworld in a challenging and friendly scientific meeting, convers-ing painstakingly during four days of full immersion on our be-loved little animals.

REFERENCES

DANIELOPOL, D. L., BALTANÁS, A., CARBONEL, P., COLIN,J.-P., CRASQUIN, S., DECROUY, L., DE DECKKER, P.,GLIOZZI, E., GROOS-UFFENORDE, H., HORNE, D. J.,

IEPURE, S., KEYSER, D., KORNICKER, L. S., LORD, A., MAR-TENS, K., MATZKE-KARASZ, R., MILLER, C. G., OERTLI, H. J.,PUGLIESE, N., RUSSO, A., SAMES, B., SCHÖN, I., SIVETER, D.J., SMITH, A., VIEHBERG, F. A., WOUTERS, K. and YASSINI, I.,2015. From Naples 1963 to Rome 2013 – A brief review of how theInternational Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) developed as asocial communication system. In: Gliozzi, E., Pugliese, N. andAlvarez-Zarikian, C., Ostracoda as proxies for palaeoenvironmentalchanges. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology419, 3–22.

ITO, E., DE DECKKER, P. and EGGINS, S. M., 2003. Ostracodes andtheir shell chemistry: implications for paleohydrologic andpaleoclimatologic applications. In: Park, L. E. and Smith, A. J., Eds.,Bridging the gap. Trends in the ostracode biological and geologicalsciences, 119–152. London: The Geological Society. PaleontologicalSociety Paper no. 9.

RODRIGUEZ-LAZARO, J. and RUIZ-MUÑOZ, F., 2012. Ageneral in-troduction to ostracods: Morphology, distribution, fossil record andapplications. In: Horne, D. J., Holmes, J. A., Rodriguez-Lazaro, J.and Viehberg, F. A., Eds., Ostracoda as proxies for Quaternary cli-mate change, 1–14. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Developments in Quater-nary Science, 17.

SIVETER, D. J., TANAKA, G., FARRELL, U. C., MARTIN, M. J., andBRIGGS D. E., 2014. Exceptionally preserved 450-million-year-oldOrdovician ostracods with brood cases. Current Biology, 24:801–806.

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Elsa Gliozzi, Nevio Pugliese and Radovan Pipik, Editors: Advances in ostracodological research - Selected papers from 17th ISO

TEXT-FIGURE 1The participants in the 17th International Symposium on Ostracoda: Rome, July 2013.