Late Quaternary marine ostracods of the Basque Basin (S Bay of Biscay): taxonomy and distribution

Abstract

Late Quaternary taxonomy and ecologic and age distributions of ostracods from the Basque Basin (S Bay of Biscay) are described. More than forty-four thousands ostracod specimens have been obtained from one hundred surface samples and core samples from six cores located in shelf and upper bathyal depths and other infrabathyal core as comparative deep reference. A total of 155 species have been taxonomically described, belonging to 67 genera. Most characteristic species (123) have been SEM figured, and ecologic-geographic distributions and ages have been provided for all species. The resulting database will be a useful help for palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatologic studies of the region.