Fossil And Recent Ostracods

Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Ostracods, Saalfelden (Salzburg), July 30-August 8, 1976

There are many competitive works on the market concerning evolutionary biology, but this volume is quite distinctive in its idiographic aspect focusing on Ostracoda viewed from a wide range of disciplines, ages and environments. The book deals with various lines of idiographic biology and palaeontology of Ostracoda and nomothetic trials focusing strongly on evolutionary biology. Particular themes are morphology, biology, evolution, speciation, ecology, palaeoecology, deep sea fauna, biogeography, palaeobiogeography, biostratigraphy and exploration, all concerning Ostracoda. The last decade has witnessed a spectacular renewal of interest in the study of Otracoda, particularly in the evolutionary biology of Ostracoda, including speciation. Ostracoda are unique, ranging in age from the Cambrian period to modern times with carapaces ready to be preserved as fossils, providing various lines of invaluable evidence regarding evolutionary processes. More than 120 participants from 20 countries assembled at the Ninth International Symposium on Ostracoda and this book is a collection of all the papers presented at the Symposium, plus selected papers submitted by non-attending members. It presents an outstanding record of much pioneering research and will be of interest to specalists in Ostracoda as well as all earth and life scientists concerned with evolution. Its value is further enhanced by easy-to-use indexes of authors, localities and taxa.

The proceedings hold new scientific studies on freshwater and marine ostracod genera/species. The research papers cover aspects of biogeography, ecology, morphology and taxonomy.

The geographic and stratigraphic distribution of fossil nonmarine Ostracoda in the United States are summarized in this book, followed by diagnoses of the subject species, references to literature and 34 plates of illustrations. This work shows the great diversity and usefulness of this interesting class of organisms which are small bivalved aquatic crustaceans that occupy both marine and nonmarine environments. Many are characteristic of estuarine and other tidal habitats, but only a few occupy hypersaline waters. One or two kinds are found in wet soils, or in leaf or flower cups in tropical rain forests. A few live in caves and others are commensal in gills of fish and other aquatic animals. Micropaleontologists have found their shells in many types of sedimentary rocks and have used them for stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental interpretations. Their relatively rapid rates of evolution have made them useful in subsurface stratigraphy and their sensitivity to environmental changes has provided a means of recognizing variations in rock facies. In nonmarine aquatic rocks they are commonly the most easily recoverable microfossils, and have been widely used in petroleum exploration, notably in China, Russia, Brazil and the western United States.