A limnic ostracod fauna from the surroundings of the Central Paratethys (Late Middle Miocene/Early Late Miocene; Styrian Basin; Austria)

Aquatic biota of the marine Middle Miocene Paratethys and the Late Miocene Pannonian Lake, a long-lived lake in Central and Eastern Europe, are well known. However, knowledge of the marginal freshwater environments is still rather poor. Recently, a thin-shelled ostracod fauna was discovered in Late Sarmatian to Early Pannonian sediments of a clay pit at the northern margin of the Styrian Basin (St. Stefan, N Graz). 11 taxa are described taxonomically of which some are left in open nomenclature due to insufficient preservation: Vestalenula cylindrica (Straub, 1952), Paracandona cf. euplectella (Robertson, 1889), Candona (Camptocypria) gratkornensis n. sp., Candona (?) sp., cf. Candonopsis arida Sieber (1905), ?Cypria sp., Cyclocypris nitida Sieber (1905), cf. Bradleystrandesia reticulata (Zaddach, 1844), Stenocypris sp., ?Cypridopsis sp., Striate ostracod sp.. The ostracod associations point to a shallow, sometimes richly vegetated, limnic environment. Indications of a warm, maybe subtropical climate are suggested by the occurrences of Vestalenula, cf Candonopsis, ?Cypnidopsis and Stenocypris. The ostracod fauna indicates a freshwater environment, detached from the marine Sarmatian Sea and respectively from the brackish Pannonian Lake and provides hereby an insight into the palaeohabitats of the surrounding wetlands. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.